Pori (transl. Sparks) is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by Subramaniam Siva, who rendered his debut Thiruda Thirudi, a 2004 runaway blockbuster. The film stars Jiiva and Pooja. The film was later dubbed into Hindi under the title Naya Zalzala and released in 2011.[1] The film met with negative reviews and turned out to be a box office bomb.[2]
Plot
Hari (Jiiva) is an unemployed youth who runs a pavement book shop in Tripiclane area. His father (Nagesh), an upright retired schoolteacher, buys him a shop in a building with his PF money. He names it "Periyar Bookshop" and runs it with his friends (Karunas and Ganeshkar). Meanwhile, he constantly bumps into a TV reporter Pooja (Pooja), and a love-hate relationship happens. One day, a Malaysian-based businessman named Mahadevan (Seeman) comes and evicts Hari from the shop, claiming that it belongs to him. Hari now discovers that his father was cheated by a land mafia gang which specializes in forged documents and is hand-in-glove with revenue officials. He decides to take the gauntlet and unveil the evil forces behind the property grabbers. Soon, he discovers that Nama Shivayam (Sampath Raj), Vinayagam real estates owner, is the brains behind the entire operation. How Hari becomes a one-man army and brings Nama Shivayam to justice forms the rest of the story.
Pori received negative reviews from critics. A critic from Nowrunning.com rated the film 1/5, stating that "If you have all the time in the world to do nothing else, go watch Pori. A seriously depressing movie with absolute lack of comedy, story line, good music and everything which goes into making a good movie."[5] Sify wrote "There is no script or narrative as the director deploys all cinematic cliches since time immemorial. Six songs at regular intervals that are badly picturised tests your patience. Jeeva has done a larger-than-life role which just does not suit him".[6] Rediff wrote "Watch Pori if you want to aimlessly fritter time away".[7]Chennai Online wrote "This is the director's second film after the highly successful 'Thiruda Thirudi'. The debut film, though lacking in finesse, had managed to hold audience interest with its humour, colourful characters and peppy song-dance numbers. But 'Pori' fails to excite with its lacklustre script and predictable situations".[8]
