While young actors usually play it safe by choosing a lighthearted film(like a romantic comedy) for their debut, Nakul, the brother of actress Devayani, chose the surprisingly dark Kaadhalil Vizhundhen as his first film. It turned out to be a good choice as the film's dark story allowed him to prove his acting chops while Naakku Mukka... propelled it to box-office success. He falls back on lighter, safer fare for his follow-up. A mix of the stories from many other films, it aims low but meets its objectives.

Maasilaamani(Nakul) is a do-gooder and the darling of his neighborhood. He falls in love with Divya(Sunaina), a teacher at a dance school but circumstances force her to develop a rather bad opinion of him. So Maasilaamani convinces her that he is actually Mani while the rowdy is Maasi, another guy who just resembles him. But its not going to be easy to keep up the charade.

With Nakul doing good but ending up looking bad in Sunaina's eyes, the movie's storyline seems a bit too close to that of Vijay's Thullaadha Manamum Thullum for a while. Thankfully, it takes a different route once Nakul invents a second persona. Not that this is a completely original concept either, having been employed as far back as Thillu Mullu. Though this is a promising move with some potential, things don't get interesting right away. The film doesn't manufacture any serious dilemmas from Nakul's drama and is content to meander along, creating simple problems and offering easy solutions.

Some drama is finally seen after Sunaina's suitor enters the picture. Considering the limited ambitions of the film, the fact that he is a bad guy(with some power) doesn't come as a big surprise and the storyline proceeds in a straightforward way as he tries to expose Nakul's charade to Sunaina. The cop's plans are amateurish and the ways Nakul deals with them don't require much by way of thinking and when they do, are solved in easy ways(like the help the minister offers). But comedy rather than suspense is the target here and so the movie ambles along. Sentiments come into play towards the end and the movie uses the oldest plot point in the book(the need to not make a character emote too heavily due to a weak heart) to close things. It seems a bit too abrupt but atleast, the film doesn't resort to a fight sequence.

Maasilaamani is one of the few movies in recent times with a separate comedy track. While it is disappointing that it is not following a welcome trend, the track itself has a few redeeming features. Since it follows M.S.Bhaskar's attempts to replicate the success of other actors like Rajni, Kamal, Vijay, Dhanush and Simbhu, it has a storyline instead of being a series of loosely-connected episodes. Like most recent comedies, the laughs are derived out of misery as Bhaskar undergoes a series of mishaps but the individual segments show some thought and so are pretty funny.

Nakul gets a role with much less scope for acting than his debut. He hams a bit when trying comedy but isn't too bad overall. Sunaina looks pretty but just has to remain serious most of the time. The actor playing the policeman follows the time-tested rules for playing such a role. Santhanam plays the familiar role of the hero's sidekick, with a few funny quips in his now-familiar brand of dialog delivery.