Bale Pandiya (transl. Bravo Pandiya) is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language romantic action comedy film written and directed by Siddharth Chandrasekhar in his debut. It stars Vishnu Vishal and Piaa Bajpai in the lead roles. The film was released on 3 September 2010.
Contents
Plot
Contract killer AKP and his two sidekicks arrive at a club. The group walks into the club and starts showing their power before reaching their table. A finger with a ring is placed on the table. Pandiyan considers himself unlucky. All his efforts to come up in life end on the wrong side. He approaches AKP and urges to kill him. A shocked AKP is initially hesitant. Soon, he decides to give him some time. Hence, he gives Pandiyan some money and entrusts him with the job of turning a human bomb, a job that he should execute within 20 days.
Life changes for Pandiyan after he meets Vaishnavi. They fall in love with each other. When Pandiyan decides to go tell AKP that he would rather prefer to live, he gets a rude shock: AKP and his men are found murdered. The blame falls on Pandiyan. Meanwhile, Vaishnavi gets kidnapped by a gang for a big deal. It is chaos and confusion everywhere, before Pandiyan sets things right.
Cast
Guest appearances in "Happy" song (in alphabetical order)
Production
The film marked the directorial debut of leading advertising designer Siddharth Chandrasekhar. The filming was held at Chennai, Phuket and Pondicherry.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Devan Ekambaram. The a cappella song "Happy" includes over 20 singers. It is the last song sung by Malaysia Vasudevan before his death in 2011. The audio launch was held at Sathyam Cinemas in April 2010.
Critical reception
Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com wrote, "Sidharth Chandrasekar's debut film hits the right note at certain places, and it certainly has its funny moments. If it had sustained that momentum in the second half, Bale Pandiya would have been even better". Sify mentioned, "The trouble with Bale Pandiya is that the director just do not know whether to make a spoof or a comedy with songs and action, in the process he falls between two stools" and called it "half baked and contrived". The New Indian Express wrote, "A promising effort from a debutant filmmaker, 'Bale Pandiya' is light-hearted entertainer, sustains its pace, and makes for easy viewing". Bhama Devi Ravi of The Times of India rated the film 2 stars out of 5, saying it "tries hard to be a laugh riot and an engaging entertainer and succeeds in parts".