April Maadhathil is another of those movies that would have starred Murali if it had been made a few years ago. Its hero, with love in his heart but unable to spell it out, is a familiar character in Tamil cinema. But thankfully, the reason behind his silence is his family and not just shyness. The, heroine, who also shares his feelings but keeps silent for different reasons, has also been seen before. The obstacles preventing them from revealing their true feelings are for the most part cinematic and artificial. But the appealing lead pair, some interesting touches by the director in both friendship and romance and the catchy soundtrack make this movie mildly entertaining.

Kathir(Srikanth), a poor youth, joins a college through donations earned from a ladies college. Nirmala(Gayatri Jayaram), the chairperson of the ladies college, not only leads the collections efforts but also falls in love with Kathir. But he turns down her love, citing his poor family and his responsibility of providing for them by studying well and getting a job. He becomes friends with Shweta(Sneha), the dreamgirl for all the guys in his own college. Though their friendship gradually turns into romance, neither of them opens their heart to the other. While Kathir thinks that Shweta would not get along with his poor family, Shweta does not want to damage their friendship.

The friendship among the group has been portrayed in an interesting but not necessarily convincing manner. Like the portrayal of friendship in most movies, it extends into artificiality at a few places(like their teary-eyed conversations before a 10-day break and the final split) but is engaging for the most part. The idea of spending a day at each of their houses during the break is nice and leads to one of the most interesting portions of the movie. Unfortunately, this movie too sticks to the usual rules of portraying colleges in Tamil movies. Though it doesn't descend to the depths reached by movies like Junction and Chocklet, this movie too portrays the college students as perennial smokers and drinkers. None of the guys, including Srikanth, are rarely seen without a cigarette in hand.

The friendship between Srikanth and Sneha is initiated a little too conveniently but is interesting and marked by some nice dialogs. Their casual conversations about the proposals Sneha has received is one such funny sequence. Using a tree as the backdrop to their friendship adds something new to the mix too. The gradual transformations of both their feelings are well handled with some strong sequences(like Sneha's outburst at Srikanth's house and later, her behavior during the lunch with his brother) to set the stage for the transformations. But the proceedings from then onwards feel stretched. The reasons introduced to prolong their silence are very cinematically coincidental.

The climax starts off being quite silly and overly sentimental and Srikanth's actions are definitely way over the top. But the way the most important shot is picturised(reminiscent of the climax in Piriyaadha Varam Vendum) is unexpected and excellent.

Srikanth, in his second movie after Roja Koottam is handsome and has good screen presence. He fights and dances with gusto too. Sneha looks radiant most of the time though she doesn't have much of an opportunity to perform. Gayatri Jayaram struggles in another poorly developed character that rivals her recent role in Sree for incompleteness. Karunas is quite funny though his sequences never blend in with the movie. It is a relief to see Srikanth being surrounded by a new group of friends instead of perennial college students like Charlie and Vaiyapuri. Yuvan Shankar Raja, probably the busiest music director now, provides a mixed soundtrack with some great tracks alongwith some familiar, youthful songs. He has more success with melodious tracks like Poi Solla..., Ye Nenje... which are excellent. Kanavugal Pookkum... is the best among the faster songs.