I recently pointed out how Karisakkaattu Poove faithfully followed every characteristic of a Kasturi Raja flick. V.Sekhar is another director whose movies are instantly identifiable. He always deals with some problem afflicting middle class families and conveys a moral through them. His movies have a huge gallery of stars, no fights and no duets in foreign locations. In his last movie Viralukketha Veekkam, a box-office success, he cautioned husbands against overspending and urged women to work in order to keep the family afloat. As the title makes it obvious, this time he has tried to point out the advantages of a joint family.

Thangarasu(Nasser) is the eldest of three brothers. He and his wife Meenakshi(Kushboo) have brought up his two brothers Krishna(Vadivelu), a no-good politician, and Sivaraman(Karan), a general manager in the same factory where Thangarasu works as a labourer. Sivaraman gets married to Tamilselvi(Roja), a girl from a rich family. Krishna's wife Kanagalakshmi(Sarala) mistakes Selvi to be haughty and arrogant and the friction among the family members increases. Things come to a head with the impending marriage of Padma, Thangarasu's daughter and the brothers separate.

This movie is a perfect example of a movie that goes from good to bad to unwatchable. The movie is quite entertaining as long as the brothers are together. The fun of a joint family is brought out well enough and we get to know the characters and their behaviour. The small problems among the members are believable and individual sequences, like Nasser's and Vadivelu's enthusiasm before Karan's first night, are quite enjoyable. But while Sekhar guides the screenplay in the right way until the problem is created, he seems to have no idea how to resolve it. With the brothers separating and then pairing up against the other and the wives getting together, the movie descends into confusion and ultimately ridiculousness while limping to its predictable conclusion.

Barring a stunt filled masala movie, this has to be the film in which people trade the maximum number of blows among themselves. Thrashings abound with husbands slapping their wives and brothers slapping their brothers at the slightest provocation. While a scuffle or two between Vadivelu and Sarala is expected(with the blows being rained in both directions), no one be it Nasser or Karan seems to have any control when it comes to raising their hands (counting the number of slaps in the movie might be a good game to pass time if you watch this movie with a group of friends!). After a stage, this becomes comical. Even guns make an appearance towards the end and things reach their peak when the movie ends in a free-for-all more befitting a masala movie.

But considering that the movie ultimately tries to convey a moral, the means in achieving the end could have been forgiven if the end itself had been acceptable. Unfortunately, even that is not true here. Ofcourse the people do have their change of hearts but the reason why they do so is not even remotely clear. The change seems abrupt and without reason and so lacks conviction. It looks like a few blows were all that were needed to put sense into people's heads and make them realise their mistakes.

Some good performances have rescued the movie from complete disaster. Nasser and Kushboo are the steady voices of not just the family but the movie itself. Nasser displays his talents in both comic and serious portions while Kushboo impresses by remaining calm even when conveying anger. Karan is impressive as the hotheaded youngster. All the cast members shine in the scene where they clash and decide to separate. Vivek raises a few laughs with a nice character while Vadivelu screams his way around. Nothing impressive in Deva's tunes.