Vijay should be really glad that his dad S.A.Chandrasekhar is picking other actors to star in his films. For his latest film Pandhayam, Chandrasekhar starts off with a story that seems tailor-made for Vijay but cranks up the preposterousness quotient quite a bit. The result is an absurd film without a single realistic moment in it.

Masanam(Prakashraj) has risen from being a rowdy to a minister by using violence and terror. Completely heartless and ruthless, he kills his own daughter and her lover when the two of them dare to elope after he opposes their romance because of the boy's social status. His younger daughter(Sindhu Tolani), who has returned from the US, joins the college he owns and the students there are warned about approaching her. This irks Shakti(Nitin Sathya), who begins to woo her. At the same time, he also finds his way into Masanam's inner circle posing as his loyal follower.

It is going to be extremely difficult to find a more ridiculous collection of characters than the group inhabiting Pandhayam. Not a single character behaves in a way that is even remotely believable and none of their actions can be reasoned out by the usual traits like common sense or logic. We have a minister who kills people in broad daylight, his wife who stays with him after he forcibly married her, a hero who decides to fall in love because a whole college was warned against it(though he does eventually reveal a different reason) and a heroine who falls in love for no apparent reason. And these are just the main characters! We also have a character who acts and talks like Rajni and a character who acts and talks like Vadivelu.

We've had several movies about a common man clashing with someone in power but things are a little different here since Nitin earns Prakashraj's trust and is by his side while going up against him. But the execution reveals why this is a bad idea. The idea makes Prakashraj seem so dumb that we lose all respect for him. He might be killing people and shouting out threats but when he is unable to sniff out Nitin, who is making phone calls from the same house and romancing Sindhu whenever he feels like it, it becomes difficult to see him as a fearsome villain. He inadvertently turns into a comedian and as a result, there is no energy or tension in the clash between him and Nitin.

Nitin Sathya proves conclusively that he is not hero material for masala movies. His expressions and dialog delivery get repetitive pretty soon. Sindhu Tolani is adequate. Prakashraj is over-the-top but in his defense, there is no other way to play such an unreal character. Radhika doesn't have much to do as the silent, suffering wife until the end when she finally gets real. Vijay appears in a couple of scenes as himself - once when welcoming a bunch of kids into his home(never mind the fact that he looks just as he is today though the event is supposed to happening over 10 years ago) and the second as part of a cinema shooting where he gets to utter a couple of punch dialogs.