Anyone who is familiar with K.S.Ravikumar's recent string of movies(even extending as far back as Cheran Paandiyan) would be hardpressed to guess that he is at the helm of this exciting crime thriller. Puriyaadha Pudhir is an accomplished thriller that stands up to the best in the genre. It is fast paced, maintains suspense upto the very end, contains some clever and hard-to-guess twists and turns and ties everything together satisfactorily in the end. The rural setting, cheap comedy, family ties and mawkish sentiments that have come to characterise KSR's later movies are nowhere to be seen.

When the movie opens, Raghu(Raghu), a convict, escapes from jail and lands up in the house of Geetha(Rekha), an old friend. When the police comes knocking, he picks the closet to hide in, only to find out that the body of Chakravarthy(Raghuvaran), Geetha's husband, is stashed in there. Turns out that the police is there to inform Geetha that the plane Chakravarthy was supposed to have caught has crashed. Thankful at this turn of events, she asks for Raghu's help in disposing off the body and tells him of the events leading upto Chakravarthy's death. Her husband had turned out to be a sadist and eternally suspicious of her. Her friendship with an old college friend Babu(Anandbabu) had stoked his anger and Geetha had killed him to save herself. Turns out that Babu, who had gone to fetch the police, had with an accident and was in the hospital. So Raghu meets him, tells him about the turn of events and asks him to remail silent. But an anonymous phone call blackmailing Geetha and Raghu poses further problems.

K.S.Ravikumar has employed a couple of novel effects, the most noticeable being the movie beginning in a rectangular strip in the middle of the screen before gradually expanding to regular size. He shows a good knowledge of the tricks of the trade needed to make a suspense thriller work. He keeps a tight leash on the screenplay, not letting it wander. His skill is especially evident towards the end where the explanations for the events that transpired depend on the events happening close together in a particular order. Ofcourse there are some questions (like why Rekha doesnt just pack her bags and leave when she realises her husband is a psycho. Her initial explanation of not wanting her brother to know works only for a little while and not after her life is in danger). But they are negligible.

One of the most praiseworthy aspects of the movie is the way the suspense is maintained. There are not one but two key players who are unmasked as the movie progresses. It is never obvious who they both are and KSR's tactics to throw the suspicion around work very well. The identity of the blackmailer is especially well-handled. So when the revelations come, they are very good surprises and the director's request at the end to not reveal the suspense is understandable. But the open-ended finish to the movie seems like an unnecessary gimmick.

KSR has rightly not given too much emphasis to sidestories that would have hampered the flow of the movie. There is only one distinct comedy scene involving Kumarimuthu and his wife. Even this happens early in the movie before the story has had a chance to take off. Raghu's flashback is brief with only a single duet illustrating his romance with Sitara. But inspite of this brief build up, the scene where Sitara dies, after planting a kiss on Raghu's lips, is surprisingly poignant.

Raghuvaran lays down the benchmark for sadistic husband roles with his performance. His reign of psychological and physical terror is short but effective. When he throws hot 'rasam' on her face(after calmly asking her to fill his cup up), it has a brutal impact on the audience. The rest of the cast is adequate with Raghu impressive as the quiet criminal. Sarathkumar appears in a key role late in the movie. Anandbabu's dance steps and movements seem laborious since we've been used to Prabhu Deva's acrobatics. S.A.Rajkumar's songs are disappointingly bad.