A remake of the director's own Malayalam film Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum (1999), the film has Vikram playing the eponymous character of a blind village singer, while Kaveri (reprising her role from the original) and Kavya Madhavan (in her Tamil debut) play supporting roles.

He lives in a village in Tanjore district and has an older brother Sevalai, who is a drunkard; an abusive, crippled father Valaiyapathy; and a younger sister Lakshmi.

Raghupathi has a reputation as a god in the area because of his charitable works, and when a specialist eye doctor arrives, he promises to pay the fees for an operation to give back Kasi's vision.

[4] The Hindu's Malathi Rangarajan applauded the offbeat attempt stating, "A film without predictable ingredients is a rarity.

The Kasi team has to be appreciated for its boldness, in telling a story, in a simple, straight forward manner without the evitable distractions".

While Vikram's portrayal was appreciated, "As a blind man, with his eyeballs completely in and with facial twitches so typical of the visually impaired, his portrait is realistic", the two lead actress too received acclaim, "Kavya Madhavan and Kaveri, have excellently expressive eyes, which have been put to good use".

[7] Cinesouth wrote "In the circumstances prevailing in current times, one cannot expect a better film in quality than Kasi.

[8] Visual Dasan of Kalki praised the performance of Vikram, Ilaiyaraaja's music, Gokula Krishnan's dialogues and unpredictable ending but panned the director for adding melodrama in Tamil when he handled the original in a subtle way.