S.A.Chandrasekharan first made his name making movies dealing with the law - mostly the loopholes in it. Since helming the disastrous Nenjinile, he has been content with watching the rise of his son Vijay. He goes behind the camera again for Dhosth, which deals which the issue of whether a man can be punished for the same crime twice. It is a fairly engaging thriller but his contribution is minimal since the movie is a frame-by-frame copy of the Hollywood hit Double Jeopardy, with Sarathkumar taking on the role played by Ashley Judd.

Vishwanath(Sarathkumar) is a wealthy widower and thinks the world of his daughter Nila. His close friend Raghu(Raghuvaran) however is a man willing to sell his soul if gets the right price. On Raghu's wedding anniversary, Vishwa and Raghu set out in a boat. Things get heated when Raghu, after a few drinks, accuses Vishwa of carrying on an illicit relationship with his wife(Indu). Vishwa is furious and threatens Raghu but then passes out. When he wakes up, he finds a bloodstained knife and Raghu's blood is all over the boat but hiss body is nowhere to be found. So he is arrested as Raghu's killer. But he soons finds out that Raghu is alive and kicking the whole thing was his setup to get his hands on some insurance money. Vishwa escapes and goes after Raghu while an honest police officer Neelakanda Brahmachari(Prakashraj) is assigned the task of finding him.

With Vijay increasing his chances of a hit by banking on remakes from other Indian languages, it looks like Sarathkumar is now choosing remakes of Hollywood hits to score a hit at the box-office. His last movie Rishi was also a remake of an English hit(which in turn was dubbed from a Hong Kong flick). Fortunately, S.A.Chandrasekharan chooses a film that is far more suitable for a remake and makes the changes necessary to make is acceptable. The scene where Sarathkumar is set up is quite clever. But Raghuvaran's motive is quite hazy and the director never elaborates on his MO after the setup.

The movie picks up with Prakashraj's introduction as a police officer not averse to meting out his own punishment to deserving criminals. Unlike policemen in most movies, there are a couple of instances where he is in step with (or even a step ahead of) Sarathkumar and that makes their chase a little interesting. Ofcourse he becomes braindead at just the right moments allowing Sarathkumar to give him the slip and prolong the chase.

Set pieces are identical to the original and as a result, there's not much tension or anticipation about what's coming next. The potential to create some tension is also reduced because of the constraints of Sarathkumar's image. This is clear in the scene where he is shut into a coffin and calmly blasts his way out. Ashley Judd's fear at her predicament was the main reason this scene worked in the original. There are also a few lame scenes of mixed identities with use of a mask(ala Mission Impossible) but their poor implementation makes the scenes ineffective.

Sarathkumar shows his mettle in the stunt sequences and gets a little chance to emote too. Abirami is little more than a spectator to the proceedings. Raghuvaran's trademark mannerisms and dialog delivery aid him and the same goes for Prakashraj. Indu suffers from poor characterization of her role and we end up disliking her for her silence more than we dislike Raghuvaran. Deva's songs are average.