Kamalhaasan has always been known to alternate between serious films and lighter fare. With Manmadhan Ambu, he delivers a film that can be said to belong to both genres for the most part. The film moves smoothly as long as it balances subtle comedy and drama but falters towards the end, when the balance tilts in favor of outright comedy.

Nisha(Trisha), an actress, has gone to France to mull over the situation with her fiance Madhanagopal(Madhavan), a businessman. With her friend Deepa(Sangeetha) and her two kids, Nisha sets out on a Mediterranean cruise. What she doesn't know is that Madhanagopal has hired an ex-Armyman Mannar(Kamalhaasan) to spy on Nisha. Mannar, who has taken on the job to pay the hospital bills for his cancer-stricken friend(Ramesh Arvind), finds Madhan's suspicions to be unfounded and reports back. But when Madhan reneges on his deal, Mannar is forced to lie about Nisha's activities on the ship.

The film blends drama and comedy to come up with a rather unique concoction that prevents it from being slotted in a particular genre. The blending is evident in the film's story(Kamal's job in the film is quite farcical - to trail a woman to collect information about her for a jealous beau but the reason for him taking up the job is rather serious - to pay for a friend's chemotherapy treatment) as well as in the way the individual scenes play out as broad comedy and emotional scenes alternate.

The balance between drama and comedy is managed perfectly for about two-thirds of the film. The emotional scenes strike a chord while the jokes flow easily. So we feel for between Ramesh Arvind and Urvasi just as easily as we laugh at Madhavan's jealous actions. Barring a few cases(one being Kamal breaking into Dhagudu Dhatham... on the streets after a serious conversation where he ended up making a difficult choice), the shifts in tone are done smoothly and are never jarring.

The screenplay by Kamal also plays its part in maintaining this balance. Kamal trailing Trisha without her knowledge is mostly comedy with his reports to an inebriated Madhavan and his attempts to keep out of her sight. But the other link between them is brought in wonderfully and restores the balance. Its the best kind of plot development - one that is a terrific surprise but in hindsight, seems so obvious that it makes us wonder why we didn't see it before.

From the time Madhavan leaves Chennai, the film abandons emotions to transform into a complete slapstick comedy. Unfortunately the comedy isn't fully effective. It starts off good and the planning stage has several funny lines for everyone involved(Kunjan's "enakke ippo dhAne therium" is one of the funniest). But the laughs dry out as it moves on to the execution stage. There is a lot of chaos but this doesn't translate into hearty laughs.

The weak comedy also highlights the other problems. Like the shift in tone, which is quite jarring. The characters also undergo unbelievable transformations to make the slapstick work. As a result, the relationships between them which had been developed so carefully are completed in half-baked fashion(it is never clear when Trisha falls in love with Kamal while Ramesh Arvind's condition, after being shown in a very detailed manner, is closed with a simplistic "the operation was successful") and the new relationship that is launched is utterly unconvincing.

Kamal is ofcourse one of the few actors who can make the shifts between drama and comedy work. As always he finds the perfect note for every scene and makes them work. Madhavan though is unable to find that balance and just comes across as being wishy-washy. Trisha fits her part well while Sangeetha gets the tone right initially but overdoes it once the film moves into comic territory. Kunjan and the actress playing his wife are in slapstick mode throughout and so they initially don't fit in but find their groove once the film goes for laughs.

Neela Vaanam... is picturized wonderfully as we see an important segment of Kamal's life in reverse(his lip-sync is normal though). Kamal's passionate singing and the scenario make it quite emotional. Suriya, in a cameo, gets the film's only duet in Oyyaale Oyyaale… while Who's the Hero helps give Kamal a typical Tamil cinema hero introduction. Kamal's kavidhai wasn't in the film and though the place its been snipped out is obvious, its deletion doesn't look awkward. Manush Nandan's gorgeous cinematography gives us a tour of Europe as well as the interiors of a grand cruise ship.