When an actor-director team hits upon a winning formula in their first collaboration, it is pretty unlikely they will mess with it when they get back together again. So its no surprise that Dhanush and Mithran Jawahar, who previously gave us the hit Yaaradi Nee Mohini, are back with another light romance that is a remake of a Telugu film. The results are also the same as Kutty is also a light-hearted affair that manages to keep us entertained inspite of its familiar and predictable story.

The first time Kutty(Dhanush) sees Geetha(Shriya) is when she is accepting the love of Arjun(Sameer Dattani), who is madly in love with her and threatens suicide if she doesn't reciprocate his affections. But that doesn't stop Kutty from revealing his own love for her. Worried about losing Geetha, Arjun comes up with a plan and succeeds in making her hate Kutty. But Arjun and Geetha have to get Kutty's help when their romance runs into trouble.

Kutty does have an interesting protagonist. While Dhanush's eventual goal is the same as every other hero i.e. get the girl of his dreams, his approach is quite different. The way he reveals his feelings unmindful of either Shriya's hesitation or Sameer's anger is cute and unusual. Though some of his acts(like the way he tricks Sameer when going to visit Shriya in the hospital) are predictable, others(like the gift he gives Shriya at her birthday party) are not. Dhanush's casual approach, Shriya's confusion and Sameer's exasperation make Dhanush's wooing of his girl follow an interesting route.

While Dhanush's characterization keeps things humorous, Sameer's characterization ensures that there's no real drama. Dhanush begins to woo Shriya after she accepts Sameer's love but the film remains a Dhanush-Shriya love story rather than a love triangle because Sameer is poorly characterized. The way Shriya is coerced into declaring love for Sameer and Sameer's actions(like the fact that he doesn't mind embarassing Shriya in order to drive a wedge between her and Dhanush) guarantee that he is more a temporary obstacle in Dhanush's path rather than a serious challenger to him. Sameer does show some signs of change later but its too little too late since Dhanush has also changed his MO by then.

The uniqueness of Dhanush's character is lost and the movie becomes a regular love story once the three of them go on the run. There are a lot of contrivances with respect to Dhanush's house and Sameer taking off leaving Dhanush and Shriya alone but its the familiarity of the proceedings as Dhanush takes care of Shriya that's the biggest culprit.

Dhanush manages to make the character his own with his usual brand of casual acting. He is likeable as the guy who takes everything easy but is also able to bring his love to the forefront in the second half. The heroine's role is a nice change of pace for Shriya. She is more sedate and less flashy than her usual personas and she is able to bring out the uncertainty her character faces almost right upto the end. Sameer's character is a loser right from the word 'go' and the actor does what he can with it. Srinath evokes a few chuckles as he increases Sameer's confusion with his comments about Dhanush and his words and actions. Devi Sriprasad has been constrained by the fact that its a romance but there are no duets and comes up with another average soundtrack.