Though he has a few certified blockbusters under his belt, director P.Vasu has always been viewed as an old-fashioned director whose films thrived on sentiments and melodrama. But its the confusing screenplay and the illogical end that drag his latest film Puli Vesham down.

Munian(R Kay) is a rowdy willing to do any deed as long as the price is right. But all the money goes towards the treatment of Thamarai(Divya Vishwanath), whose relationship to Munian is a mystery to everyone. Meanwhile the ACP(Karthik) is after Govindan(Mansur Ali Khan), who runs a prostitution racket. When he realizes that Govindan has connections inside the police force, he seeks out Munian.

Puli Vesham has an interesting - even if straightforward - story of a policeman and a rowdy teaming up. But P.Vasu wants to spice things up by articially injecting suspense and to do this he resorts to the same technique that Anjana did in Veppam i.e. shuffle the chronology by presenting key segments via flashback. But this makes things rather incoherent in the beginning. As new characters pop up without any background information and storylines start abruptly, things seem disjoint and the film doesn't flow smoothly.

Sada's introduction is a little funny as she uses her Anniyan connection but her feelings for R Kay after that are as half-baked as her character. But R Kay's relationship with Divya is somewhat new. His devotion towards her and her attachment to him are given a strong foundation and are showcased well, as are the problems caused by their closeness. And though we don't look for it, its always nice when a film provides a rationale for the hero's strength and fighting skills.

The film has a long line of bad guys to keep R Kay and Karthik busy but the ways in which the bad guys are disposed off aren't very interesting or surprising. Considering the way R Kay's character is shaped, the end is quite predictable. Still the screenplay selects the worst possible way to get to that end. The actions of many characters don't make much sense and the logic behind their actions, particularly Karthik's, is completely flawed.

R Kay, who recently played the villain in Avan Ivan, is quite wooden. That doesn't matter in his persona as the killer but makes it difficult when he has to display emotions. Karthik is a little more subdued than usual. Sada, reappearing after quite a long break, doesn't have much to do while Divya makes a better impression in a role that is more fleshed out. Mansur Ali Khan's obsession with cricket adds a little bit of variety to his otherwise cliched role while Baskar proves that he can play a bad guy as easily as he plays a comedian.