V.Sekhar is one of those directors whose movies can immediately be identified as having been directed by him, even without seeing his name in the credits. Like Visu, his movies have consistently dealt with problems in middle-class households. His Viralukketha Veekkam cautioned men against overspending while Koodi Vaazhndhaal Kodi Nanmai praised the advantages of a joint family. Here he tries to say that it is no loss of honor for a son-in-law to stay in his father-in-law's house and that he can actually help out by doing so. But the weak theme and even weaker handling make for uninteresting viewing.

Kandasamy(Vijayakumar) hasn't had much luck with his sons-in-law so far. Both Ganga(Charlie), husband of elder daughter Jamuna(Kalpana) and Dhamu(Vaiyapuri), husband of second daughter Rani('Kovai' Sarala), are unemployed. Worse, they think of themselves as privileged for accepting to stay on in Kandasamy's house. Manickam(Napoleon) weds Meena(Roja), Kandasamy's youngest daughter, and he too, to help Kandasamy, stays in their house and helps improve their hotel business But the return of Muthupandi('Thalaivaasal' Vijay), Kandasamy's son who ran away a few years back, causes Manickam to move out and start a business on his own.

While Sekhar's first few movies tackled serious issues with a light vein of comedy, his last few movies have placed more emphasis on comedy while marginalising the issue. Veettoda Maappillai continues the trend. To make matters worse, the issue of sons-in-law staying at their wives' houses doesn't appear to be a heavyweight issue and the comedy used to convey the message is loud and rarely works. So both aspects of the movie are in trouble and consequently, the movie contains nothing to engage us.

There is no subtlety whatsoever in either the proceedings or the characters and Sekhar assumes that pounding his message into the viewer's heads at every possible oppurtunity is the only way of conveying his message. Every single character inhabiting the movie is a caricature. While Charlie and Vaiyapuri are the sons-in-law from hell, Napolean is the very epitome of goodness. Even Vijayakumar, who manages to earn some sympathy during the first few reels as the harried father-in-law, starts behaving in a manner that makes no sense once 'Thalaivaasal' Vijay enters the scene. Infact, the screenplay loses all semblance of logic once he makes an appearance. And on a different note, this movie takes over the crown from Mugam for having the most utterings of the title. In fact, this movie probably has more people saying "veettoda maappillai" during the first five minutes than during the entire running time of Mugam.

Napolean is soft and dignified and fits the bill as the do-gooder son-in-law. Roja is adequate as the sister not averse to giving her brothers-in-law and sisters a piece of her mind from time to time. Charlie is irritating most of the time while Vaiyapuri has one of his biggest roles so far. The role seems to have been written with Vadivelu in mind and Vaiyapuri immediately gains our acceptance since we are just thankful that it is he and not Vadivelu. Kalpana and 'Kovai' Sarala are wasted.