I started watching with zero expectations, but went ahead due to Gautam Sir and Raja Sir. What an excellent magic they created! I've read all criticisms for this movie; while I respect others' opinions, I perceive motion pictures from the concept of impact they have on our lives - do we visualize ourselves as the characters? do we enjoy as one-time watch? This film scores very high on my book because of 3 pillars:
(1) Gautam Sir and Raja Sir: Strength of this movie is its narration. People've called it slow, but Gautam Sir paced and sequenced the situations perfectly. Raja Sir's songs were, as usual, excellent with perfect placements (Na Muthu Kumar's lyrics were wonderful and fused very well with music).
(2) Subtle nuances of the emotions felt at different stages of life by the lead pair: Gautam's direction in even tiny spots is evident (when Varun asks Nithya out for coffee and Nithya rejoices, when Nithya shows her frustrations in between 'Mudhal Murai' song sequence, Nithya's defiance in Manappadu).
(3) Fantastic acting from Jiiva and Samantha (I became a big Samantha fan after this): Jiiva played his part beautifully (calm nature in school, college and in climax scene) and could've been given more prominence, but I'll accept Gautam's narration. Samantha scored really big in 2 situations - (i) adolescent Nithya in school getting upset quickly shouting at Varun and breaking up (ii) mature Nithya being stubborn in Manappadu but not able to bear the thought of Varun marrying someone else and breaking down in the end.
Other characters are nothing but strength: Santhanam, Vidyullekha, Harish Ragavendar and so on.
The only real blemish was bad cinematography in the most critical scene - before interval: instead of close up, full scene was shot from high angle, greatly reducing the emotional intensity and effectiveness of the scene. In addition, the good times Varun and Nithya shared could've been expanded a little (like the tiny moment of happiness in between 'Kaatrai Konjam' song).
Despite these, movie will live in people's hearts because of the emotional roller coaster in a not-so-dramatic narration. One suggestion: please do not watch this movie if you are looking for action or high drama, leading to perfect climax with a bang; none of these will be present.
Tingnan pa 
