Anbarivu has a premise that we have been seeing on screen from days the days of Uthama Puthiran — estranged twins switching places and bringing down the scheming villain who has been causing trouble. The slight difference here is that rather than an action drama, director Aswin Raam gives us a rural family drama.
The film begins with the antagonist Pasupathi (Vidaarth, digging into this negative role with relish) narrating how he managed to separate his friend Prakasam (Saikumar, cast against type as a good guy) and his wife Lakshmi (Asha Sharath, dignified), the daughter of Muniyandi (Napoleon, who manages to soften this problematic character), the hot-headed Muniyandi big shot in Arasapuram, a village near Madurai.
Pasupathi, who works as Muniyandi’s help, had been hoping for a political ticket from the big man, who doesn’t consider him because he is from the neighbouring village Aandiyapuram, which is looked down upon bu the Arasapuram folks because they are from a less privileged background. Caste is obviously the reason, but somehow, the film is hesitant to use the C-word. Instead, it chooses to talk around the issue with euphemisms. Towards the end, we get one visual, in which coconut shells are replaced by plastic cups in a tea shop.