Assistant directors who are promoted to directors tend to exhibit the style of their mentors in their early films. So its no surprise that Veppam, the debut film of Anjana, who worked as an assistant director to Gautham Menon, resembles a Gautham film with its slick look. But the depth in characterization that was seen in Gautham's best films is absent here, resulting in a film that feels superficial and offers more style than substance.

Balaji(Muthukumar) and his younger brother Karthi(Nani) were orphaned at a young age when their mother committed suicide and their dad Jyothi(Shimmor) abandoned them. They were raised by Sekhar, a painter, and Sekhar's daughter Revathi(Nithya Menen) and Karthi are in love. Karthi's best friend is Vishnu(Karthik Kumar), who takes care of his dad's mechanic shop. Vishnu falls for Viji(Bindu Madhavi), one of the girls under the control of Jyothi, who now runs a prostitution racket and wants to to free her.

Veppam has quite a few similarities to Aaranya Kaandam. It also revolves around a package that everyone wants to get their hands on and it also features rival gangs, ambitious gangsters, a few people caught in the crossfire, double crosses and violent encounters. But without the sparkling wit, the unique characters and the racy screenplay that marked Aaranya Kaandam, it doesn't come close to generating the same kind of exhilaration or excitement.

Nani is ostensibly the hero but he is too straitlaced to be interesting. Karthik, with his laidback approach to life, is the more interesting of the two(Muthukumar, with his mix of love for his brother and rage against his father, has the potential to be the most interesting but he gets very little screen time). This spills over into their romances too. While the Nani-Nithya romance is dull and uninteresting, Karthik's romance with Bindu is passionate even if shortlived. So it makes sense that Karthik's wish to save her is the driving force behind the twists and turns their lives take.

Director Anjana's favorite cinematic technique seems to be the flashback. While almost the entire film is structured as a flashback, there are several points in the film where key events are skipped and then presented as flashbacks later. While this helps in increasing the suspense and our involvement in the film sometimes, there are other times when seeing something without knowing what led to it(like Nani and Karthik showing up perturbed at the tea-stall) causes a sense of disorientation and has us wondering if some scenes were cut.

The other problem is that the revelations in the flashbacks don't always match the level of the suspense preceding them. The questions thrown up by the movie - the reason behind Nithya's action that opens the movie, what actually led to Nani's actions, what happened to the package, Nithya's predicament, etc. - are all interesting. But when the answers are disclosed, some of them - the deus ex machina resolution to Nithya's problems in particular - feel anti-climactic and disappointing. In such cases, the flashback technique feels like a gimmick.

Karthik Kumar gets a role very different from the urban roles he's played so far. He is not as uninhibited as the role calls for but is convincing enough. Nani isn't stretched much and Nithya Menen has even less of a role. Bindu Madhavi makes a nice impression in a small role, conveying both the initial brazenness and the later passion quite well. Shimmor portrays a rather despicable individual convincingly. Kaatril Eeram... is picturized like a music video on Nani, Karthik and Nithya and conveys the friendship between the three with some light humor and casual choreography. Mazhai Varum... is a wonderful number though it feels unnecessary while Oru Devadhai... is picturized sensously. The title track works great as the background score during the action sequence.