[4] The film was released on 30 August 2013,[5] opening to positive reviews from critics,[6] but was declared as an average grosser by box office analysts.
A poor laborer named Kalyani is devoted to his young daughter Chellamma, but the child has problems at school with her studies, classmates, and teachers.
After his debut directorial Kattradhu Thamizh, Ram was expected to commence his second project, which was tentatively titled Saddam Hussain and was to star Dhanush and Bhavana.
[13] He had penned a story titled Thanga Meengal and, as claimed by reports in August 2009, had eventually found a producer to fund this film under the banner of Touch Stone.
[3][17] Gautham asked Ram to enact the protagonist's role,[18] which he agreed to after shooting rehearsal scenes with Suba Pandian and cinematographer P. G. Muthiah and being "thoroughly convinced".
[19] Thanga Meengal was disclosed to illustrate the story of a middle-aged man who gets separated from his wife and daughter to search for a job "just for the sake of earning money".
[23] The shoot of the entire film was completed in 53 days and it was held in places like Wayanad, Cochin, Nagercoil, Achankoil and other scenic locations.
[30] Directors Lingusamy, Prabhu Solomon, Vetrimaran, Samuthirakani, Chimbudevan, Cheran and Balu Mahendra were present at the event and Anirudh Ravichander, Karthik, Alphonse Joseph and the two girls in the film sang an unplugged version of all the songs.
[40] Behindwoods gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Yuvan Shankar Raja has again delivered his best for Ram and you will have plenty of hair-raising moments as he weaves magic with his instruments, for the movie's BGM score.
"[34] Milliblog gave positive review stating "Two songs stand out in Thanga Meengal, that is shades below Yuvan-Ram’s earlier collaboration.
"[41] Kaushik LM rated the album 4 out of 5 stating "Yuvan is in top form delivering Thanga Meengal and he proves that he is a perfect mix of the old school and the new world.
[6] Rediff gave 4 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Thanga Meenkal is a heartwarming story told brilliantly with a simplicity and honesty that is seen so rarely in films these days".
[48] Behindwoods gave 3.75 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Thanga Meengal brims with heart felt heavy emotions, has lifelike performances and is a brilliantly made film".
[49] IBN Live gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Barring few minor flaws, Thanga Meengal cuts you deep emotionally and achieves what several films in the recent past couldn't".
[50] The Times of India gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Thanga Meenkal shares many of Kattradhu Thamizh's film's strengths and flaws.
[52] Indiaglitz gave 3 stars out of 5 wrote, "Ram deserves a special mention for his direction cum acting, with only two movies he has proved his mettle and Kollywood needs more directors like him no doubt".
He further wrote, "It’s never easy to direct and act at the same time, but director Ram manages to extract a fantastic performance from even the child actor Sadhna.
We haven’t seen better use of landscape in storytelling, and the director of photography Arbindhu Saara has literally climbed mountains for seconds of diegetic credibility and exhaustive coverage of ambience and location.