While having a rowdy as hero is not as popular as it was in 2006, the subject is definitely not completely out of favor. Thotta is the latest entry in this genre and it comes with all the elements associated with this genre, neatly in place. It initially sets the stage for an interesting turn of events but never exploits this interesting scenario and proceeds down a familiar, predictable path. Its believable romance and good pace help hold our interest but the interest never turns into involvement.

Abandoned by his father and having lost his mother, Shanmugam is adopted by a corrupt police officer Muthuvel(Sampathraj), who rechristens him as Thotta and raises him as a rowdy. Apart from Muthuvel, the other bigwigs who employ the services of Thotta(Jeevan) are a minister Manimaran(Livingston) and a businessman(Santhanabharathi). When Thotta runs into Nalina(Priyamani), whose father helped him when he was a boy, he wishes repay the favor by helping her and her family. So he tries to help her achieve her dream of becoming a policewoman. Unfortunately, Muthuvel has his eyes on Nalina too and that leads to problems between Thotta and him.

Movies with a rowdy as the protagonist fall into one of two categories depending on whether the hero's mentor is good or bad. If he is good(as in Bheemaa), the hero will stay with him until the end while if he is bad(as in Aaru), the hero will go against him and clash with him. But in both these categories, the hero's mentor is a rowdy too. Thotta starts off differently by making Jeevan's mentor a policeman. So it sets up an interesting scenario where the policeman, who is a hero in the eyes of the people, is the real villain while Jeevan, who is seen as a bad rowdy, is just a hired hand. Unfortunately it doesn't do much with this scenario.

Movies with a rowdy as the hero are usually handicapped by the fact that the romance in unbelievable. But Thotta sidesteps that cleverly by making Priyamani unaware of the fact that Jeevan is a rowdy. The fact that he helps her out and doesn't reveal that he is a rowdy makes it easier to accept when she falls in love with him. Jeevan's acts, like the fight at the marriage hall, to ensure that she remains ignorant are quite funny. And since Priyamani hates rowdies, there is even a little suspense added to the mix since we cannot predict how she would react when she learns the truth.

Since Sampathraj is as corrupt as they come, its pretty clear that Jeevan will be forced to go up against him at some point. That does happen but the battle between them is pretty tame. The fact that Sampathraj is a high-ranking police officer with a good image among the people is never exploited by Jeevan(unlike, say, Vikram's plans against the minister in Dhool) and the director takes the easy way out by making Sampathraj indulge in cliched villainous acts. But the climax doesn't cheat us and the film manages to close things out logically.

With his rather limited acting skills, this role isn't too much of a stretch for Jeevan. He doesn't make the romantic sequences look too convincing but has enough experience playing the bad guy to make the rest of the role work. Priyamani has a better role that the heroines in such hero-oriented rowdy movies though it doesn't it doesn't give her much of a chance to emote. She's pretty liberal in one of the song sequences though. Sampathraj is a throwback to the villains of old when the actors had to shout and growl to show themselves as the bad guys.