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Director: Shankar
Cast: Arjun, Manisha Koirala, Laila, Raghuvaran, Manivannan, Vijayakumar, Vadivelu, Hanifa & Sushmita Sen.
It is Shankar's fifth directorial
venture and his first home production, but the director has not
cut any corners here. The canvas is still large as in Shankar's
earlier films. But all the technical gloss cannot camouflage the
inadequacies of 
the script, which comes to the fore in the
second half. Arjun's is a macho appeal. The actor is convincing
both in the light scenes, as well as in the intense ones.
Manisha, who has a lean, famished look throughout, has little by
way of role; the rustic garb too not quite suiting her. If the
normally dependable Raghuvaran looks a bit distracted in this
film, one has only to blame the unsightly wig he has on, the
strands of which keep falling all over his face.
One can just pick out two catchy numbers of Rehman's. 'Azhagana Ratchasiye' and 'Muthulvane'. The set for the latter song is eye-catching, but the graphics remind one of a song number in 'Indian'. There are hundreds of dancers dressed as life-sized dolls, Roman soldiers or maize corns. Thousands of mud pots make the set for another song. But it is nothing that the noted Telugu director Raghavendra Rao has not done earlier with pots, lamps and sarees! What stands out is the brilliant cinematography of K.V. Anand. Sushmita Sen does a dance number to the song 'Boom shake laka. '
It's a topic relevant to the times. Of power hungry politicians, exploited public, and a single man who attempts to clear the cesspool. Pugazhendi, attached to a private T.V. Channel gets his first big break when he is asked to do a live talk show with the Chief Minister of the State. Pugazhendi corners the man with his aggressive questioning. The obviously disconcerted C M throws a challenge of his interviewer. "Take my seat for just one day and you will realise the problems I face". Pugazhendi accepts, the legalities are gone through and he is sworn in. So far so good! Then, the one-day the C M goes on a 'suspension-spree', removing anyone found corrupt or inefficient. A steno walking behind him with a typewriter, ready to type out orders provides some unintended humour. The new C M does find the time to flex his muscles at some rowdies, chasing them on streets and on the top of running buses. 'Action King' Arjun can do no less! The director's handling of these scenes is very juvenile, very simplistic.
The day of power is over and Pugazhendi sees the repurcussions of his actions rebounding on him. Persuaded to stand for elections, he wins and becomes the 'Muthalvan' again. The audience, together with the public, waits eagerly to see what he would do now, but are in for a disappointment. The culprit is the director. Shankar not too sure of what he should make his hero do now that he was in the C.M's chair, brings an assassin into the narration. The new C M sneaks into the village to meet his sweet-heart and the whole place goes up in flames. Incidentally, one of the first acts of the C M was to send over a cell phone to his girl. He goes to spend some quite moments with his parents and a bomb destroys his whole house. Some work for the stunt-choreographer here. Poor Pugazhendi, by the time he finishes with his personal problems and thinks of the State - the movie comes to an end.