Following its release,
Anbe Sivam has attained
cult status in Tamil cinema and receives re-runs on television channels. When the film was in post-production, Haasan revealed to film critic and journalist Subhash K. Jha that he was impressed with Madhavan's enthusiasm and performance during the making of the film, subsequently signing him to appear as the protagonist in his production venture,
Nala Damayanthi (2003). Baradwaj Rangan wrote that
Anbe Sivam was "leagues ahead of the average Tamilwhy, even Indianfilm", though he felt that "the masses were unwilling to accept the experimental nature of the film", while talking about the film's box office failure. Bala also made a reference to
Anbe Sivam in his 2003 film,
Pithamagan, in a scene where
Suriya's character goes for a screening of the film with his friends. A dialogue told by Haasan to Madhavan, "Do you know what a
tsunami is?
Periya alai illa... malai." (It's not just a big wave... it's a mountain) also attained popularity. In 2008, S.R. Ashok Kumar of
The Hindu listed
Anbe Sivam among the "top five directorial ventures of SundarC." In a 2008 interview with
The Times of India, SundarC. stated that
Anbe Sivam "changed [him] personally and professionally", making him a more confident person and altering his outlook towards life. He later contradicted his statement after revealing that the film's failure led him to become almost bankrupt and he remained unpaid for his work. The
Income Tax Department froze his bank accounts for a year as he was not able to pay his taxes. He admitted that while he received praises for the film after its theatrical run, he would not make a film similar to
Anbe Sivam any more and that he chose to continue making commercial cinema, which he felt better matched his interests. In 2013, Haricharan Pudipeddi of the
Indo-Asian News Service agency, included
Anbe Sivam in his list of "Kamal's most underrated films". He believed the reason for the film's commercial failure was that audiences misunderstood the "sarcastic undertones associated with atheism". On Haasan's birthday, 7 November 2015, Latha Srinivasan of
Daily News and Analysis considered
Anbe Sivam to be one of the "films you must watch to grasp the breadth of Kamal Haasan's repertoire". The character of Nallasivam was ranked fourth in
The Times of India's list of "Kamal Haasan's top 10 mind-blowing avatars". In
Vasool Raja MBBS (2004), the character Vasool Raja (Haasan), while attending a class asks whether being a doctor is equivalent to being God, and in doing so says "Anbe Venkatachalam", to which one of his classmates gently asks him, "isn't it Anbe Sivam?". Haasan retorts: "Let it be. Let's try something different for a change." The street theatre sequence featuring Nallasivam and his friends performing to make people aware of the atrocities committed by Kandasamy Padayatchi was re-created at
Tiruchirappalli in 2008 by Pralayan and his troupe from "Chennai Kalai Kuzhu" under the title
Nammal Mudiyum. In contrast, Pralayan's play explored gender inequality and domestic violence instead of unemployment. Kannada actor
Vishnuvardhan noted in 2010 that fellow actor
Sudeep's film
Just Maath Maathalli (2010) bears resemblance to
Anbe Sivam. Hari Narayan, writing for
The Hindu in 2014, mentions in his article on the Indian
rationalist and author
Narendra Dabholkar that
Umesh Shukla's
OMG – Oh My God! (2012) was "a toned down version of
Anbe Sivam where rationality propels humans to find God in themselves, with flaws, which extols the virtue of becoming as much as that of being". In 2015 Uthiran of
Hindu Tamil Thisai in
Tamil, mentions in his review of
Orange Mittai (2015) that the film's plot might remind viewers of
Anbe Sivam. In 2017, Ashok, who directed the comedy film
Peechankai, mentioned he was inspired by
Anbe Sivam to become a director. == Film ==