The story is set in 1005 AD. Raja Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola are benevolent rulers of the Chola dynasty. As a mark of respect to the gods, they want to build a temple in Thanjavur. They appoint the master sculptor Iniyan, a handsome young man who is also a good dancer, to do the sculpture work for the big temple. However, Iniyan finds the palace 'narthaki' Muthunagai not up to the mark and is unable to find the right girl to pose as the model for his sculpture work. Meanwhile, he meets a village girl Chamundi, who is said to be the granddaughter of a shepherd woman Azhagi, who is not only beautiful but has an hourglass-like figure and dances like a dream. Iniyan slowly falls in love with his 'model', and when he expresses his love for her, she spurns it as she is the Queen herself. An absolutely shattered sculptor in a moment of remorse does something which is shocking and is the real twist in the tale.
Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff wrote "[..] the biggest flaw is the script itself, which based on a tiny story, has been stretched to two-and-a-half hours".[5]Behindwoods wrote "On the whole, Uliyin Osai is not a film with great merits but is certainly something different from the regular fare that we get. For those who care for something different on the screen this movie is worth a watch. Kalaignar's dialogues in classical Tamil are a rarity these days and connoisseurs of the language will enjoy it".[6] The film won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards: Best Dialogue Writer (Karunanidhi), Best Comedian (Kovai Sarala) and Best Choreographer (K. Sivasankar).[7][8]
