Kangalaal Kaidhu Sei represents a dual change of track for Bharathiraja. While his recent movies have been village-oriented and sentimental, his latest offering has an urban setting and is a psychological thriller to boot. While neither of those is new to Bharathiraja, the lack of professionalism seen in this movie is definitely new. Barring Kadal Pookkal, none of his recent films have been particularly impressive but this one's lack of professionalism makes it worse even when compared to those.

Vaseegaran(Vaseegaran), the fifth richest man in India, is also a kleptomaniac. This secret is known only to his psychiatrist but Vidya(Priyamani) notices when he swipes a bottle at a store. When Pratap, a competing businessman donates his diamond to a diamond exhibition, Vaseegaran steals it. The blame falls on Vidya, who identifies Vaseegaran as the possible thief and then takes up a job as Vaseegaran's secretary to find out the truth. Gradually, Vaseegaran falls for her.

The way the movie has been made belies the fact that a competent director, let alone a director like Bharatiraja who has several classics to his credit, is behind the camera. The whole movie, whether in the performances of individual artists(like the woman's artificial cry on the loss of her ring) or in the way individual scenes (like the laugh-out-loud scene where Priyamani makes her exit from Vaseegaran's room, swivelling on her feet a la Cindrella) have been mounted, is marked by an amateurishness that has no place in an experienced director's product. Though Bharathiraja has made successful urban thrillers in the past(Sigappu Rojakkal is one that comes to mind), the long gap seems to have dulled his skills in this genre.

But the amateurishness isn't the movie's only weakness since the movie isn't particularly strong on story or logic either. A kleptomaniac is someone who has an irresistable urge to steal. While Vaseegaran's initial acts support this, his planned robbery of Pratap's diamond at the exhibition makes him a thief rather than a kleptomaniac. While the fact that Priyamani joins his staff with the hope of retrieving the diamond can be digested, her acts once she is inside do not mark her as a girl of even average intelligence. And there are some laughable sequences like the police's visit to Vaseegaran's house to search for the diamond, which is hanging on the neck of his dog in plain sight!

After the atrocious first half the movie has nowhere to go but up and thankfully, Bharathiraja manages to take this direction. There are quite a couple of twists and the way the story proceeds is not always predictable. Bharathiraja has also played with our expectations by taking the story in an expected and cinematic way first, before changing track with a big surprise. But the effect of the surprise is rather muted since the way it is revealed doesn't have an impact and lacks finesse.

Vaseegaran looks the part of the rich, lonely man but he seems to find it extremely difficult to show expressions of any kind on his face. Priyamani looks pretty in some angles and comes of as a better actor compared to Vaseegaran. There are not many other familiar faces and none of the new faces make much of an impression either. The ridiculously low screen time afforded to actors like Mayilsamy and Ilavarasu(I think I spotted his face for a brief instant) points to some really bad editing and a lot of the movie ending up on the editing room floor. A.R.Rehman has some catchy tunes in both the catchy and the melodious categories. Aaha Tamizhamma... is the best of the two songs in the former category while Azhagiya Cindrella... is the pick of the melodious tunes.