The film is about an ordinary young Tamil-postgraduate, who becomes a tortured victim of Chennai's gentrification, fueled by the booming IT industry, slowly losing his mental balance and becoming a psychopath.

Prabhakar (Jiiva) is a Tamil teacher in a private school in west Mambalam area of Chennai, who leads a lonely life in a lodge.

He is frustrated and even tries to commit suicide, in a system where knowing one's mother tongue and teaching it is looked down upon by a society craving for material benefits and imbalance in pay structure.

Prabhakar, for no fault of his, is at the receiving end, terrorized by cops and on the run after killing a railway booking clerk in a fit of rage.

Finally, he wants to exorcise the devils within and at gunpoint kidnaps a television anchor Yuvaan-Suang (Karunas), who records his life story, in which he confesses to killing 22 people in cold blood.

In the flashback, he reveals his past, his upbringing by a Tamil teacher Poobaal Raavar (Azhagam Perumal) and his childhood sweetheart Anandhi (Anjali), who becomes an obsession for him later in his life.

Anandhi's family relocates to another place after a few years, after which Prabhakar's childhood is marred by tragic events as he loses his mother and grandparents in an accident.

On one night, he intimidates a call center employee who flees after failing to recite the Tamil verses, which a drunken Prabhakar gives to him.

By mid-2006, Ram an erstwhile assistant of Balu Mahendra began working on his directorial debut, initially being titled as Tamil M.A.,[2] which was later changed to Kattradhu Thamizh to get exempted from the entertainment taxation.

[3] Ram told that the film would revolve around a young man, who gets into trouble because of his education,[4][5] quoting that it would show the "pathetic state of our mother tongue [Tamil] in today's society".

[10][11] Jeeva had grown a full length beard for the character and cited the hardships during the shoots of the film, which he considered as his most painful experience and a "torturous affair".

Aspects as direction, writing, performance, music, cinematography and editing were immensely lauded and appreciated and expected to bag a bunch of awards.

[20] It praised the direction and the acting and technical department, which were of "higher order", pointing out the cinematographer, S. R. Kadhir's and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja's work.

[21] Manasvini of Kalki praised the acting of star cast, Yuvan's music, Kathir's cinematography and Ram's direction but felt protagonist's characterisation feels ambiguous and too many flashbacks confusing the viewers and concluded saying despite flaws, this film strongly conveyed love with depth and horrors of poverty with pain.