At the age of nine, Jeeva’s grandmother Karuppayi Aatha slays five men because they scorned her father’s advice and illegally distilled alcohol in the village.

In pre-production work, Tarun Gopi originally offered the lead role to Madhavan, then to Telugu actor Prabhas.

Prakash Raj was originally selected for the role of the police officer Jeeva, but he was replaced by Malayalam actor Lal.

Australia was originally planned to be the location for filming songs, but due to visa problems these scenes were shifted to Malaysia.

[13] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote, "Three neat tracks from GV Prakashkumar, but the nonchalance towards the language and pronunciation is appalling".

[14] Kaalai was released on 14 January 2008 at the Pongal festival alongside Bheemaa, Pidichirukku, Pirivom Santhippom, Pazhani and Vaazhthugal.

Sadly it is a watered down version of earlier films and ends up as an over-the-top ham enterprise, Kaalai is like a bull in a china shop and makes you groan".

[18] Rediff wrote the film looked like an "unplanned assembly of chases, police encounters, hip-gyrations (you can't call them dances), cacophony and choreographed fights using a set of actors sans any purpose".

[20] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "No doubt the director after the initial confusing scenario, has cleverly knotted up all the seemingly loose ends, and put back the pieces of the puzzle into a coherent whole.