How easily someone can be taken for granted! How deeply that someone can be affected! How far can you push a person before he jumps off the edge?

Prabhakar [Jeeva] could be anyone you know. The boy next door. The guy who delivers the newspaper at your doorstep. The man around the corner, who presses your clothes. Anyone. Someone whom we could so easily not notice. Katradhu Tamil is the story of this unassuming man, who suddenly decides to make society wake up and take notice of him, of his needs, of his beliefs.

Anandhi [Anjali] is the girl-next-door to Prabha [short for Prabhakar]. From a very young age, they share a special relationship. She's the typical simple naïve child, gullible to Prabha's childish harmless fibs. As their friendship begins to take shape, tragedy befalls Prabha - he loses his entire family except his father, in a gruesome road accident. Circumstances put him under the custody of his Tamil master [Azhagam Perumal].

Few people we meet in life inspire us as this Tamil master does Prabha. In the shadow of his teacher, Prabha's knowledge and passion for his mother language grows and flourishes. Prabha loses his mentor, again in an accident. And it is at the morgue, that he once again meets Anandhi. Having lost her father in the same accident, Anandhi leaves to Maharashtra to live with her uncle. Again the two are parted.

Prabha, by now resigned to his ill-fate, enrolls for his Masters in Tamil. Orphaned by fate, he decides to seek out Anandhi. He finds her and befriends her again. The two fall in love. Her uncle comes in their way, and the two are once again separated. A much distressed Prabha returns to Chennai.

Luck has completely failed him - he is subject to torture and humiliation at the hands of a number of people; he reaches the edge. And he takes the plunge. The quiet Prabha is soon a criminal, wanted for 22 murders. Just as he decides to take his own life, he is arrested. He escapes the police and finds Yuvan Sivank [Karunas], a cameraman. Prabha convinces Yuvan to take a video and send it to a TV Station. In the video, Prabha narrates and explains the events of his life and the crimes he has done. What happens next? What fate befalls him? Is he joined with his love?

Ram has excelled in his directorial debut. The story was born out of his life; his rage is that someone who teaches a language as rich and as ancient as Tamil, should earn just Rs. 2000 while someone who knows how to work on a computer, a device invented so recently, earns in lakhs. The fiery dialogues, coupled with Jeeva's excellent performance, makes the movie a visual feast. Jeeva has outdone himself - Prabha is easily his best role till date.

Debutante Anjali as the innocent lass and wronged lady has acted like a pro. The romance sequences have a certain innocence and depth that they just penetrate the hearts of the audience. Azhagam Perumal has lived his character. Yuvan's music is a treat - blending with the story as easily as one breathes. The re-recording and editing have done wonders to the script. The camera is almost another character in the movie. Need we say more?!

Katradhu Tamil has a message and has said it with such forcefulness that one just has to stop and think. A movie that will haunt one's mind, for days after the curtains fall.