Most of the criticism surrounding Boys more or less relates to Shankars traditional story lines with high morals and family entertainment. Boys in far from a family movie and it is perhaps the most sexually explicit Tamil movie to ever come out, without actually having any nudity after censorship.
Boys is thus something one just cannot watch together with the family as most of it concerns the sexual adventures of 5 Boys, all newcomers, putting in superb performances. Now, while people who consider themselves morally upright and strict may find this embarrassing, most of the actual teenagers of India will actually be disturbed at how accurately it depicts what they actually do, without their parents knowing.
Boys will be Boys and that needs to be accepted. Society is'nt as squeaky clean as one would like to believe. First the teen, especially college going, audience will be disturbed, then thrilled and then appreciative. This made the movie a success in the cities but a lot of revenue actually comes from conservative suburbs and villages where people viewing will not have a clue of whats going on since the movie reflects the behavior of mostly, socialite urban populace.
But with Shankar's style and AR Rehman's music, Boys is certainly a superb movie if you don't have any of the reservations discussed above. It does'nt have a great storyline on the line of Indian, Mudhalvan etc but Shankar injects quality into each and every scene, making this movie highly enjoyable from the beginning to the end. Its just sheer bloody fun and genius.