BALE PANDIYA MOVIE REVIEW

Starring: Vishnu Vishal, Piaa.
Direction: Siddharth Chandrasekar
Music: Devan Ekambaram
Production: Kalpathi S.Agoram

Adman Siddharth Chandrasheker makes his incursion into direction with AGS Entertainment’s Bale Pandiya with Vishnu of Vennila Kabbadi Kuzhu fame and Pia Bajpai in lead roles. The title does not bear any resemblance to the old Sivaji Ganesan hit but for the ‘mama-maapley’ track in the ‘sirkkiren’ number. In his maiden directorial flick, Siddharth weaves a story about an unlucky young man, his escapades in life and his interpretations of the same.

Right from his birth, Pandiyan (Vishnu) remains ill fated and his bad luck follows him wherever he goes. Some of the incidents to show this are amusing, especially when he gets into a big bus which breaks into two and the Nadi Josier (astrologer) dying while writing his horoscope! Even his suicide attempts are failures and he finally takes the help of henchman AKB to kill him. AKB is hired by politician Pasupathy (John Vijay) to kidnap Vaishnavi (Pia), daughter of fellow politician Jaiprakash, basically to silence him on a political issue. In the midst of this, Vivek comes from London in search of Pia to marry her. How the paths of all these people are brought in a single line and what life has in store for Vishnu, when he has decided to call it quits, is the story of Bale Pandiya.

The attempts of director Siddharth appear fresh and there are touches of his ad world experience in a few scenes. The summation of the events at the end is very interesting and novel too. And so are the title credits. Some of the dialogues are high on intelligent humor especially when Pia says on a good bye note to Vishnu “Inda situationla Birlavaa irundalum Tata nnu daan sollanum.” The scene where pedestrians and cyclists overtake Vishnu’s bike is funny. However, Siddharth has not held the screen play tightly through out and loses his grasp especially towards the end. The film seems to drag on with a meandering narration in the latter half.

For Vishnu, this is his second film and the lad has done justice to his role. Cute Pia passes muster but it is time she has a make over as her looks and costumes are virtually the same in all films. Amarendran, as the dada, is an impressive find. SS Music Gibran has nothing to write home about. John Vijay is rocking as always and is a delight to watch. Jaiprakash delivers right.

Vivek, as the man from London trying to chide the happenings in Chennai, is annoying mostly. But he can be forgiven when he talks some sense about giving way to ambulance and giving a simple solution for deep dug holes in the roads.

Devan Ekambaram’s debut as music director is just about satisfactory. The song ‘Happy’ is picturised differently with many singers and the Kangalal Kamalalayam is melodious. Devan’s music is very loud and his BGM even overlaps the dialogues in some scenes.

In short, if Siddharth had tweaked a few portions it would have resulted in a crisper Bale Pandiya. Go without expectations and enjoy the ride!

Verdict – A fractional entertainer!