Chennai Kadhal

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "It is as though Vikraman, angered by the lukewarm response to his earlier family drama, has gone all out to fill up the film with formula stuff. Only that he goes overboard. The director could have stuck to family themes. At least it is known territory. `Chennai Kaadhal' is just old wine in worn out bottle".^[3] Sify wrote, "Director Vikraman has made a deliberate attempt to deviate from his usual formula and it has succeeded to a certain extent though the story, presentation and even dialogues are so predictable. The main problem lies with its script which has nothing new to offer and the love between the lead pair is so artificial has no life in it".^[4]

Sriram Iyer of Rediff.com wrote "The movie is director Vikraman's supposed attempt to make something different. It is surely not one of his usual slow paced dramas, but that alone is not enough to make it 'different,' by any standards. He has chosen a plot older than a heavily worn out doormat".^[5] Lajjavathi of Kalki wrote Vikraman made a film different from family dramas however he did not move an inch away from formula calling the story routine and felt this film made tired of watching films with same formula. She praised the performance of Bharath, humour of Bharath's father and Muthu Ganesh's cinematography and concluded saying there are other directors who make such stories but there were only a few people like Vikraman who were able to play swings due to their feelings, with this film, Vikraman moved away from that line and requested Vikraman to do give a film in his style so that it will stay forever like the sky (a pun on his film Vaanathaippola, where the title means "like the sky").^[6] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "Chennai Kadhal is a film that tests your endurance level the way a Vikraman film has never done before!"^[7]

• Chennai Kadhal at IMDb