The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a wonderful movie. I have watched it several times and never got bored. Such a great music composition by The Maestro Ilayaraja and every song of this film is awesome. 'Raja Rajaathi Raajanindha' is a peppy song of the time and Ilayaraja's voice suites to the mood of the song.Karthik and Prabhu had done a wonderful casting. All the fights were shot well and the camera was handle excellently.PC Sreeram has proved that he is one of the best through this film.Amala appears as a naughty girl who did her part quite pretty.Manirathnam has done a wonderful job and professionally and technically he proved his skills and abilities.

this is a great movie from Mani Ratnam.. it depicted the love hate relationship between the two brothers who were born to different mothers superbly. Mani Ratnam is one of the finest film makers in Indian cinema. he has the potential of making the best films in history of world cinema!! The songs of the movie are just classics with the Raja Rajathi Raja song the best!!! Some of the other songs too rock.. Ilayaraja has showcased his talents in this movie in a big way. This movie also lead to many movies coming in the same genre, notable one being the Vijay-Surya movie "Naerukku Naer". My favorite scene of the movie is the one where Karthik's sister gets teased by some goons in the train and she moves to the other compartment where her step brother Prabhu is with his lover Amala and this girl calls Prabhu 'Anna' (brother) and asks him to save her from the goons!

Honestly,when this movie was released,i was a two year old kid.But when i saw this movie....now,it is brilliant!!when compared to the conditions of that time in India,this movie is technically very good.Mani sir used exceptional lighting technique for the songs in this movie.Well,some may call this effect as "steven Spielberg" style,but i think there is definitely something different.All the actors done very well in their respective roles.The songs are superb.Mastero Ilyaraja has given awesome music for this movie.In one line,i think this movie is a worth watching movie.It is said that this movie is a big breakthrough for mani ratnam as a director,it is simply superb!!

I saw this movie on DVD recently and all I can say is "WOW"!!! Ratnam really scored big time when he made this movie about two stepbrothers who hate each other. P.C Sriram's cinematography is absolutely brilliant. It pretty much changed tamil cinema. Prabhu, Amala and the beautiful Nirosha all give great performances. However, Karthik (who gave a memorable supporting turn in Mouna Raagam-another brilliant ratnam movie) gives the best performance in this movie. His role as a street thug really stole the entire movie. I believe he won a filmfare award for it. Rest of the characters also give good performances. Raja's music for the movie is just wonderful. A real classic.