Though cricket is a national passion, movies revolving around cricket have been rarities in Tamil cinema with Chennai 600028 being our only worthwhile entry (the less said about I Love You Daa, that insult to both cricket and cinema, the better). Poatta Poatti, which stars cricketer Sadagopan Ramesh as hero, is a half-hearted entry into the genre. Starting off as a comedy and entering Lagaan mode much later, it is more successful at the former than the latter.

Kodaivaanan(R. Sivam) and Kolaivaanan(Umar) are village bigwigs who both want to wed their uncle's daughter Ranjitham(Harini). While Kodaivaanan actually loves her, Kolaivaanan wants to marry her to lay his hands on her dad's considerable wealth. Its soon decided that the winner of a cricket match between the two will get the girl and the wealth. Kolaivaanan recruits a fake coach Harichandra(Mayilsamy) to train his team while Kodaivaanan's group kidnaps real-life cricketer Sadagopan Ramesh and forces him to be the coach. Ramesh falls for Ranjitham without realizing that she's the girl over whom the match is being fought.

Though the enmity between Sivam and Umar is serious, Poatta Poatti keeps things light-hearted by making Sivam a comical character and keeping most of the focus on him and his group. His air of self-importance and his antics whenever he's around Harini lead to liberal laughs and Avatar Ganesh contributes to the laughs with several funny quips and one-liners. Ramesh's attempts to escape from the group also leads to some funny sequences.

The subject of teaching cricket to a group of cricket-illiterate villagers appears to have potential but the film isn't as successful mining laughs from this scenario. Barring a few sequences - the selection scene after the villagers have been tempted by offers of land is one - there aren't many laughs as Ramesh attempts to educate and teach his team. The other side fares worse in this aspect since Mayilsamy's ignorance of the game is taken to extreme levels and just seems silly.

The movie suddenly turns serious and inspirational as we get villains(in the form of businessmen who want to purchase a hill nearby) and a bigger cause(protecting the village by saving the hill). The earlier comedy works against the movie whipping up serious emotions during the training sequences. The final match reminds us of Lagaan quite a bit with the looks of some of the characters and the way one of them uses his strength in another department to play well. Though there is no suspense regarding the outcome, it manages to generate a little tension since some of the characters have grown on us.

Sadagopan Ramesh is wooden but since he mostly serves as foil to other actors, it doesn't affect the movie much. Sivam and Ganesh stand out among the huge cast of debutants while Umar looks like he could make a pretty good villain. Harini has a perennially sad look because of her droopy eyelids and finds it difficult to overcome that in the romantic scenes. Mayilsamy, the only familiar face in the cast, doesn't deviate much from his usual style.