The film stars Vijay and Jyothika, alongside Manoj K. Jayan, Avinash Yelandur, Vivek, Raghuvaran, Kausalya and Karunas.

Eventually, the delays due to the replacement of some actors and actresses caused the film to release in 24 October 2003, coinciding with Diwali.

[8] Thirumalai, a rough-looking kind-hearted mechanic, lives a peaceful life in Chennai with his friends and also has close relations with his neighbors – Selvam and Nagalakshmi, a couple.

However, Ashok gets enraged with their relationship due to status issues and assigns Arasu, a gangster, to finish Thirumalai.

Later, Arasu releases them, where he understands Thirumalai's kind-heartedness and decides to reform himself, which is not accepted by his assistant Dass.

Namrata Shirodkar was chosen initially to play the female lead, but the director was not satisfied with her onscreen presence and she was replaced by Jyothika.

[15] The audio was also well received among the audience and marked a series of collaborations between Vijay and Vidyasagar with Ghilli, Madhurey, Aathi, Kuruvi and Kaavalan.

[16] Nowrunning gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated "Yet another poor-boy rich-girl romance with parental opposition and mafia interference".

He has an age-old poor boy-rich girl love story in hand and has to contend with Vijay's mass image.

[19] Behindwoods wrote " Things were never going easy for Vijay until Thirumalai happened and resurrected his image as a mass hero that he’s become today.