# Bale Pandiya (2010 film)

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.

## 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. Pandian 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 Pandian 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 Pandian after he meets Vaishnavi. They fall in love with each other. When Pandian 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 Pandian. Meanwhile, Vaishnavi gets kidnapped by a gang for a big deal. It is chaos and confusion everywhere, before Pandian sets things right.

## Cast

* Vishnu Vishal as Pandiya
* Piaa Bajpai as Vaishnavi
* R. Amarendran as AKP
* Vivek as London
* Gibran Osman as Kachitham
* Appukutty as Kachitham's assistant
* John Vijay as Pasupathy
* Jayaprakash as Vannaiyar
* Dr. Sharmila as Pandiya's mother
* Gadam Kishan as Raju
* Vijay Sethupathi as Pandiya's brother
* Pandu
* Vaiyapuri
* Aarthi
* Nellai Siva
* Cell Murugan as Thirupathi
* Rangammal
Guest appearances in "Happy" song by: (in alphabetical order)
* Aalap Raju
* Anuradha Sriram
* Devan Ekambaram
* Divya Vijay
* Haricharan
* Japan Kumar
* K. J. Yesudas
* Malaysia Vasudevan
* Malgudi Subha
* Manikka Vinayagam
* Megha
* Mukesh Mohamed
* Naresh Iyer
* Naveen Madhav
* Paravai Muniyamma
* Rahul Nambiar
* Ranjith
* Raqueeb Alam
* S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
* Shaan Rahman
* Srinivas
* Suchitra
* Sundar
* Swetha Mohan
* Velmurugan
* Vijay Yesudas

## 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".