Recent devotional movies have attempted to cash in on devout viewers by having a flimsy story of a Goddess coming to the help of her devotees and spicing it up with shoddy graphics. Most of these movies have also tasted box-office successs and that makes it even more praiseworthy that Kuzhandhaiyum Dheivamum, dubbed from Devullu in Telugu, does not follow the same formula. Instead it shows more respect for its theme by focussing on some of the famous holy spots in the country and the myths and legends behind them.

Prashanth(Pritviraj, also known as Babloo) is a famous music director who weds Nirmala(Manthra), one of his biggest fans. But when she becomes an even more popular singer, an ego clash erupts between them taking them as far as a divorce. That is when their two kids are told by their grandmother that she had made a series of promises to visit several holy places, which she had failed to keep. She believes that this is the reason that the couple is going through their problems. So the kids take it upon themselves to visit all the holy spots and fulfil their grandmother's vows. Along the way they get some divine help.

While Rama.Narayanan's Amman movies and the like have been brain-dead, not looking beyond the single idea of devotees in trouble, there is atleast an attempt here to answer a bigger question. The movie opens with an explanation for why even the devout are troubled in the first place, that makes sense. Ofcourse, we have also learned not to look at aspects other than the devotional and things are no different here. The initial romance and the subsequent fights between Pritviraj and Manthra are artificial and predictable. The only consolation is that they do not occupy much screen time.

The setup for the devotional portions is downright silly. As the grandmother lists out the long list of unfulfilled promises, the feeling we get is that she couldn't have been too devout or too bright. Wouldn't a lady learn after the first few promises she couldn't keep that she might not be too good at keeping promises and hold off on the others atleast until she was able to meet the earlier ones?!

I almost don't believe I am saying this but the movie actually gets better once the kids set off on their trip. The legends associated with each holy destination make things interesting. And unlike other recent movies, the gods appearing as humans at each point and helping the kids makes things more interesting than the gods making things happen through graphics and special effects. There are also some nice comments the gods make(like Hanuman's crack about burning things up in places he visits) which elicit a smile.

With the kids occupying a major portion of the movie, the other actors are mere passers-by. While the kids themselves are not likely to be nominated for any awards, they get the job done by not acting beyond their ages(though the trip they undertake definitely is). Pritviraj and Manthra are adequate as the parents. A whole host of familiar faces from the Telugu cineworld(many of whom identifiable to Tamil audiences too) like SPB, Ramya Krishnan, Suman and Rajendra Prasad appear as the human forms of the gods.