I have always been partial to Vikraman's movies. Ever since Pudhu Vasantham, the importance he gives to friendship and other relationships in his movies, the good naturedness of the characters and the overall decent nature of his movies have almost always overcome negatives like the simplistic nature of the proceedings, predictability of the sequences and uninteresting song sequences. Priyamaana Thozhi falls into the same category. The friendship at the core of the movie and the attitudes of the principal characters towards it are so refreshingly positive and nice that it is difficult not to like the movie or its characters.

Ashok(Madhavan) and Julie(Sridevi) are inseparable as they have been friends since childhood. Ashok runs a video service but his passion is cricket and his ambition is to play for the Indian team. The friendship between Ashok and Julie is entirely platonic and neither has any intentions of falling in love with the other. Meanwhile Ashok falls in love with and marries Nandhini(Jyothika) hoping she would accept Julie as part of their family.

As in other Vikraman movies, the first thing that strikes us is the positive nature of the characters inhabiting the movie. While this could be considered optimistic and even naieve, it is definitely fresh and different. While family members belonging to lovers from different religions or even castes are usually at each others' throats, here we have family members actually urging Madhavan to wed a girl from another religion! Manivannan's complete trust in their frienship is also presented well. But Vikraman proves himself incapable of subtlety when focussing on negative characters. Whenever a character is mean, they come off looking silly and illogical. This is the case of Jyothika's sister whose animosity towards her and Madhavan is artificial and cinematic and her actions, even more so.

The romance between Madhavan and Jyothika is rather weak and the means employed to bring them together are cinematic and amateurish. When all that Jyothika has heard is a line sung by Madhavan, her happiness on learning that she is her suitor is unrealistic and doesn't give their romance a strong foundation. Jyothika's mother's attitude at the birthday party points the movie in a familiar direction. But Vikraman's tendency to populate the movie with good characters leaves us in no doubt as to what Jyothika's attitude towards Sridevi will be. But her behavior is refreshing nevertheless.

The dilemma Madhavan faces at the end is predictable right from the start but is strong enough to make his sacrifices understandable. The following scenes where he tries to change Sridevi's attitude towards him are some of the best in the movie. None of the characters goes overboard and their silent reactions are very effective. But issue is resolved too conveniently with the talkativeness of one of the characters being the culprit. The climax(in a railway station again) is rather lame and Vikraman loses the opportunity for a strong climax by having Sridevi break into a song at the key moment.

Madhavan, who has displayed great variety in his choice of characters in recent movies, plays Ashok in a sober and mellow way. Jyothika too is restrained but doesn't appear uncomfortable in the role of the bighearted wife. Sridevi looks cute and is very effective in conveying sadness with her eyes. Her reactions are the main reason why the scenes where Madhavan attempts to drive her away are so effective. Ramesh Khanna teams up with another comedian to raise a few laughs by duping Madan Bob. Nirosha, who seems to be making a comeback in "sister" or "sister-in-law" roles, is funny when asking Livingston to display the same affection as Madhavan does on Jyothika. Livingston's reactions are worth a couple of chuckles too. S.A.Rajkumar comes up with some low-key tunes as usual.