Murugaa is a familiar feature. A love story made by a debutant director with new faces in the lead roles, it takes no risks, giving us exactly what we expect - a straightforward romance with a few conflicts thrown in. The director does a competent job, not making a mess of things and not resorting to vulgarity but he doesn't earn any laurels either.

Murugaa(Ashok), studying in 10th standard, falls in love with Amudha(Sruthi Sharma), his classmate and the daughter of shipping magnate Vinayakam(Mahadevan). He goes as far as giving her a love letter but receives a good thrashing from her uncle Selvam(Riyaz Khan), who has intentions of marrying her. Murugaa moves to Chennai and gets a job as a courier boy. He once again runs into Amudha, who is now studying MBBS and the two become good friends. Though Murugaa's love is strong as ever, he is happy to be just her friend since he learns that she has agreed to wed Selvam after completing her studies.

A poor boy falls in love with a rich girl whose uncle also wants to wed her... love stories just don't get any older than this! The movie does scare us a little bit when it seems to be building this story around students in 10th standard but it limits that to a short flashback. Tamil cinema has had a pretty bad track record on romance in school but by making the romance one-sided and presenting it more as an infatuation rather than deep, sentimental love, the director manages to keep it clean here. Ashok's friends have some funny lines(the bit about the face powder one of them gets for him is hilarious) and the whole segment keeps things lighthearted.

The movie does the right thing by spending most of its time on the two of them when they are somewhat grown up and get back together after a break. By becoming friends, the two get to spend enough time with each other and so it is more convincing when one develops feelings for the other. The director succeeds in showing the genuine affection between them and gives it good enough reasons(especially on Sruthi's part). The conflicts that arise are reasonable though all of them are closed in predictable ways.

While unimaginatively picturized song sequences always serve as speedbumps to a movie's pace, the songs in Murugaa actually end up being detrimental to the movie. They are awkwardly inserted(the first song happens when a sadhu on the lorry taking people to Chennai, asks Ashok for a kuthu paattu!) and picturized in a dull manner and the crass duppanguthu duet that appears right after Sruthi reveals her feelings to Ashok actually negates the effect of what was a well-made scene with practical dialogs. The comedy track with Vadivelu isn't as damaging as the songs but it is not terribly funny and doesn't earn our irritation since it features only a couple of segments.

Ashok reminds us of Simbhu in a couple of angles. He has done reasonably well for a first film though he hasn't offered anything special. Sruthi Sharma looks good sometimes but there are other times when she looks really old and haggard. Poor Samiksha... From playing the heroine (Arindhum Ariyaamalum), she is now relegated to playing the second heroine in films with a new lead pair! After looking like she might make up one of the points in a love triangle, she disappears from the story. Others in the cast are adequate.