After the success of Thiruda Thirudi, it is unfortunate that director Subramania Siva's Pori (spark) does not manage to light any fires. His attempt to tell a tale of honesty and middle class values fail to sustain the audience's interest.

Pori is the tale of Hari (Jeeva) who owns a pavement bookstore in Triplicane. Life is pleasant and filled with fun times with his two cronies -- an astrologer and a locksmith. He also meets the overconfident Uma (Pooja), a local news anchor, who seeks shelter in his bookstore while running away from some hoodlums. Many such encounters between the two lead them to develop a romance of sorts.

Hari keeps getting eviction notices from corporation authorities, which he keeps throwing away with disdain. However, one day he has no choice but to give up his little store. Wanting to see his son prosper and make a name for himself, his good-hearted father (played by comedian of yesteryears, Nagesh) purchases a spanking new shop in a respectable area as a surprise gift.

Hari is thrilled and goes about enthusiastically setting it up. However, his dreams are shattered almost immediately when he discovers that a real estate broker had duped his na�ve father -- the documents for the shop are fake. The original owner of the property (Seeman) and his henchmen callously throw his books and belongings on to the streets and Hari is distraught. He vows to find out who is responsible for the injustice meted out to him and his father.

Not wanting his father to find out about the travesty, Hari enlists the support of his friends and Uma to get to the bottom of things. Using gung ho tactics, he slowly discovers that a company called Vinayaka Real Estate is behind a huge scam to cheat the unsuspecting public. It's CEO Nammasivayan, is a master conman who manages to manipulate not just the middle class, but even influential politicians. As expected, Hari then attempts to teach all involved a sound lesson.

The movie then drags on and on, and just when you think the film would end when everything is resolved in court, there are some last-minute twists in the plot.

The sequence too is confusing. For example, there is a scene where Jeeva's shop is forcibly shut down and a huge fuss is raised. Immediately following this, however, is an item number where he gyrates away with complete abandon with a scantily clad starlet!

The dialogues in this inglorious script are dull, predictable and repetitive. You will hear the Tamil versions of the phrases "are you threatening me?" and the poetically ironic "is this a joke/prank?" more times than you can count. The attempts at comedy drift by without making much of an impact.

Save for the first two songs, music by Dhina is the usual humdrum fare. However, the song Vethalam Murungamaram has been picturised well.

Jeeva as Hari, is average while Pooja is loud and spunky, and a little annoying.

It seems like the love angle has been clumsily added on in the film merely as a necessary evil, with an eye on the box office.

Other members of the cast that include Gaana Ulaganathan, Karunas, 'Kaadhal' Thandapani and Caesar Manohar end up being only mildly amusing in their roles. Only Nagesh is the true saving grace of this film with his affable charm and dignity.

Watch Pori if you want to aimlessly fritter time away.

Rediff Rating: