While movies like Yaavarum Nalam and Pasanga excite us about Tamil cinema's state by tackling new genres and doing so with style, movies like Anthony Yaar appear to be made to dampen our enthusiasm. With a cliched, flimsy story and a dated, uninteresting way of presenting it, it can be placed alongside Manjal Veyyil as a production that has neither substance nor style.

Anthony(Shaam) is an orphan who has been raised by the priest(Rajesh) in a small fishing village. Good-hearted and helpful, he is loved by one and all. Manju(Mallika Kapoor), the daughter of a rich businessman, falls for Anthony as he helps her with her research on fishermen. Meanwhile Anthony urges the local fishermen to stand up to Michael(Lal), the local rowdy who is taking advantage of them and pocketing the money meant for them.

As we see a fishing village and Shaam is first seen with a mask on, we are reminded of the climax of Iyarkai, which is probably Shaam's best film to date. Unfortunately, that turns out to be the only place where Anthony Yaar reminds us of that film. The rest of the time, there's no sign of the strong characters, sweet romance, solid emotions or realistic locales that marked the other film.

The film moves along with a feeble romance and monotonous action. Shaam and Mallika have zero chemistry and their tentative romance lacks heart. Lal is a cliched villain and the encounters between Shaam and him, as Shaam stands up to him, are predictable. Shaam's fate at the hands of Lal's goons is a bit of a surprise but the way the director resolves it is quite perplexing. The addition of a little divinity into the mix does nothing much except make Shaam more of a regular Tamil cinema hero.

The end is designed to make us develop admiration and respect for Shaam. But with the poor and weak characterization and the lacklustre nature of the romance between Shaam and Mallika Kapoor, that doesn't happen. We are unmoved by his decision and her situation and couldn't care less.

Shaam, who seem to pick the worst possible movies to star in, adds another one to his resume. He is fine in the role but doesn't have the charisma or screen presence to add life to the movie. Mallika Kapoor suffers the same fate. She is adequate in the role but can't do much to breathe much life into the poor character. Lal is the only one who shows some energy. Vivek makes us laugh as he makes his entry in the garb of Padagotti MGR but there are very few laughs in his track after that.