Vandhe Maatharam's plot seems straight out of a Vijayakanth film(like, for instance, Arasaangam) with its heroes on the trail of a terrorist with a dastardly plan to attack India. While the film boasts of better production values and fewer distractions, the occasional bouts of amateurishness and the ill-fitting, overblown sentiments ensure that it doesn't rise beyond being an average thriller.

When the Intelligence Bureau receives word about a planned terrorist attack, the chief assigns Gopalakrishnan(Mammootty) to task of foiling the threat. Gopalakrishnan picks Anwar Hussein(Arjun), a cop, to assist him. The two of them figure out that the man behind the attack, a terrorist known as Maalik, has already entered TamilNadu and begin closing in on him.

The duo's chase of the terrorist is fairly interesting. The way the clues are unravelled is usually simplistic and filled with coincidences but there are enough middlemen, interrogations and chases to keep things moving. Though the chase involves a good mix of both brain and brawn, the amateurishness that creeps into the proceedings with alarming regularity is quite damaging. These segments, like the interpretation of the phrase FF in the Pakistani terrorist's message or the ridiculous fight among the trees between Arjun and the terrorist, lead to unintended laughs that undermine the serious nature of the proceedings.

While the terrorist's interrogation begins along expected lines, his resistance to the traditional methods leads to something new and interesting. What he sees outside his window seems like a case of going overboard considering the time period in question but the technique itself, the way it is implemented and what the IB hopes to achieve with it all make sense. Since what comes after it is another chase followed by a hand-to-hand combat, this segment ends up being the only original aspect in the film.

Thrillers usually start slow, picking up the pace as the movie proceeds. Vandhe Maatharam does the opposite as it manages to sustain its pace with first, the terrorist's chase and then his interrogation but lets things slow down in the last third of the film. Some unnecessary sentiments and a documentary-style segment about the sufferings undergone by the farmers act as speedbreakers to the film's pace.

Mammootty has played several variations of this role of an investigating officer pursuing a criminal in his career in Malayalam films and so isn't stretched much here. Arjun, true to his sobriquet of 'Action King' assumes the more active part in the chases and fight sequences. Sneha gets a miniscule role that seems more like an extended cameo and seems lost during the little time she is onscreen since she is brought into the proceedings using a ridiculous ploy. The actor playing the terrorist is adequate.