He has one single expression throughout Pandi whether he is sad, happy, singing songs or fighting! Added to that it is a typical mass masala film that leaves you with a migraine.

The wafer thin story is etched out from half-a-dozen early Rajinikanth films. It follows the hackneyed formula of hero, a school drop out and a loafer with a battalion of friends (mostly comedians).

His father a teacher and disciplinarian can’t stand him but he is mom’s favourite. Due to circumstances he is forced to go to Dubai, doing menial jobs and gets reformed after he took over the responsibilities of the family (got his sisters married).

The guy who tries to fix his dad at work becomes his enemy. The bad guy accidentally kills his mother and after a lot of steamy sentiments and tears, he also kills the villain by accident!

All this is laced with two item songs (Namitha), hero (Lawrence) introduction justifying he is a man with a heart of gold, mother (Saranya) sentiments, father (Nassar) misunderstanding his intentions, fights (Villain-Raj Kapoor), hero winning educated rich girl (Sneha), her father (Ilavarasu) a police inspector is fiercely opposed to her marrying a loafer, more sentiments as father is forced to attend daughters wedding as a part of police security given to the hero.

The other highlight for the masses are heroine singing dream songs in glamorous costumes in the beaches and cities of Malaysia and a song under the influence of country liquor, heroine puking twice on the face of the comedian (Ganjakarupu), to make you laugh. Ha, Haa!

And finally the entire cast shedding copious glycerin tears as hero’s mom is dead and final rites are taking place. At that time a courier comes home with a kanchivaram silk sari for mom and our hero calls from Dubai, and asks others whether they got the courier. But nobody is willing to inform him the truth! It is one of the corniest “Amma sentiment” scenes, ever seen in Tamil cinema.

Phew! This reviewer survived Pandi. Even mass masalas should have some kind of logic; this one is as believable as snow in Chennai!

Verdict- Avoidable