There are some characters that are an undeniable part of tamil movies that are set in villages. The gold-hearted hero, the well-respected elder in the village, the chirpy 'akka ponnu' of the hero and the villain whose only job is to drag the hero's name through the mud are some such characters. Veera Nadai includes each and every one of these stock characters. The only novelty it offers up is in the relationship between the hero and his maaman magal. The love in this case is one-sided with the hero seeing her as his daughter since he has brought her up.

Periyakaruppan(Satyaraj) and his father(Chandrasekhar) are the most respected father-son pair in the village. Naturally, Koattaisamy(Arunpandian) and his father(Senthil), who belong to the neighboring village, hate them because of this. Periyakaruppan, who has brought up his sister's daughter Poomayil(new-find Uma) ever since her parents died, showers love and affection on her. Just as she is on the verge of getting engaged, Poomayil learns that because of the responsibility of bringing her up, Periyakaruppan had sacrificed marriage to Mallika(Kushboo), whom he had loved. This makes her realise all that he has done for her and she now wants to marry Periyakaruppan. But he cannot accept this since he has never seen her as anything more than someone he is a guardian to.

The movie doesn't start off with much promise. As I mentioned before, the story of the well-respected hero and his detractors in the other villages is the staple of almost every movie that is set in a village. Other conventions like the fight in the marketplace, the villagers singing the praise of the hero at every possible occasion and the villain being insulted(here he is made to promise on milk that he will never steal again!) are also dultifully followed. The personal life of the hero doesn't offer anything new either. There, he is the sacrificing, loving uncle looking out for his sister's daughter.

As in Tirunelveli, the hero's reason for remaining unmarried is related in a flashback. Kushboo is a breath of fresh air here as the woman pining for Satyaraj. But the movie doesn't quite seem to get the ages of its charaters right. The flashback is around 20 years back and Chandrasekhar has aged suitably with his bird's nest of hair in the flashback balding completely. But Satyaraj and and even Koundamani look exactly the same. Atleast Prabhu looked his age in Tirunelveli. While the girl falling in love with Satyaraj might have seemed distasteful is he looked old, the complete lack of any signs of aging on him still seems like carelessness on the part of the director.

As in most of his recent movies, Satyaraj has Koundamani along for the ride. Infact, Koundamani has more dialogs than Satyaraj. While his interactions with Satyaraj and co. has some fully lines, he overstays his welcome with his solo routines. The shorter ones among these are tolerable but the long sequence where he worries for his life after receiving a letter really tests our patience. Senthil is also on hand but his villainous role limits the opportunity for comedy. But the director manages to insert some comic interactions between him and Koundamani with their meeting in the field where they talk about giving to each other taking the cake.

Once Uma expresses her interest in marrying Satyaraj, the movie goes along expected lines. The climax is a bloodbath with people getting hacked all around. The fight between Satyaraj and Arunpandiyan is ferociously picturised with the director attempting to capture the intensity of the Kamalhassan-Nasser encounter in Thevar Magan. Their smaller encounter before this is also well-picturised. Satyaraj's final monologue to Uma is sensible and emotional and places their relationship on a high pedestal.

Satyaraj looks really old but has underplayed the role suitably. He is impressive in the couple of scenes he is required to emote. Arun Pandiyan seems to have thought that rolling his eyes and speaking in a gruff voice make up for villainy. The scene where he begs Satyaraj to kill him after losing a fight is the only one where he makes an impression. Uma is no great shakes and seems like someone destined to eternally play the role of the hero's sister. An almost unrecognizable Chandrasekhar provides able support.