Ardent Vijay fan Pokkiri Simon (Sunny Wayne), declares "I'm waiting!" a few times through the movie, recalling the punch dialogue of his favourite star. That's exactly how I felt as I watched the film - waiting for it to take off, waiting for something to happen.
Director Jijo Antony's Pokkiri Simon is a tedious film that seems to have been made up as the shooting progressed. There's no other explanation for why the film is all over the place, first pretending to be a comedy, then a romance, and finally a thriller. To make things worse, we have copy-paste scenes from Vijay's films at crucial junctures that just look like pale imitations.
Simon, our hero, and his friends are crazy Vijay fans in Kerala. Their ambitions in life are to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Pokkiri and the grand release of Bairavaa. They dress like Vijay, their ringtones are from Vijay films, one of them names his auto 'Love Today' and his daughter Jennifer (the heroine's name from Kushi).They also respond to people with dialogues from Vijay's films - so when an aged father asks his son to help him out in the shop because he's too old, the son gives him the blistering speech from Kaththi about the potential of old people.
You'd think the film would take on an ironic tone, considering none of these men are doing anything useful in life. Their families are frustrated by their lack of ambition, too. However, the director is determined to show us that somehow, by being dedicated fans to a movie star, these guys develop superhuman abilities -- like beating up 10 men in one go and taking on the mafia. We're also told that it's because they are Vijay fans that they know to respect women. Clearly, the director knows nothing about the social media wars that go on in the names of the big stars of Kollywood.
There's a love story thrown in with Prayaga Martin. The first time Simon sees her, she's whistling non-stop during a Vijay film. And the second time, is a recreation of the cringe-worthy scene from Pokkiri when the hero ogles the running heroine. At this point, you know that there's no redemption for Pokkiri Simon.
The only real conflict in the film does not appear until well into the second half. And by that time, the waiting has gone on for so long that we really don't care. The only interesting detail is that the villain, Shammy Thilakan, is shown to be enjoying an Ajith film. Let's leave it at that.
Usually, if a superstar film doesn't work and the reviewer wants to play it safe, the review will end with a 'strictly for fans'. This one, though, is strictly for the fans of such fans.