THUPPAKKI

The Mushrooming of Mulitplexes and sophisticated cinema theatres in most parts of the state, and the fact that i was out of the state for a year meant i had missed a lot of action at the tamil box office over the last year or so. Diwali at home, And a Big Film, with a Big director, Big hero, Big Music Director releasing excited me, for diwali or any festival for that matter is incomplete without a movie !!!
                                                So Diwali day night show, i show up at the theatre and find massive crowd ! fighting, haggling, getting beaten by police but ready to be beaten yet want to catch up their "thalapathy" ( DISCLAIMER - IAM NO VIJAY  OR AJITH FAN , but I do like and appreciate their wonderful entertainers). Having grown up watching and worshipping Rajini , for the first time i felt "VIJAY HAS ARRIVED AND FITS RIGHT UP THERE " yesterday, or in other words, i was forced into that conclusion by the massive,massive crowd that had turned up.
                                                  Now, coming to the movie itself, It gets into "bullet" mode straight away despite having the usual masala hero introduction and a song ( very very subtle compared to pathetic introductions of vijay in movies like sivakasi, sura ). Scenes are cleverly woven and murugadoss successfully tries to give logics to them ( eg. the fight game cleverly finishes vijay s intro and gets us into that "mode" and doesnt intrigue us when he uses games with his batchmates further down the movie). Screenplay completely engrosses the audience with some "delicious masala elements" like finding the gagged bomber in vijay's room, 12 simultaneous hits in vijay's "game" and so on.. Movie races to the interval with frequent pit stops in the form of songs.
                           The second half too, goes at considerable pace , but as the plot heats up the love scenes, songs become burdensome and seriously hamper the pace of the movie. Yet murugadoss being the kind of story teller he is, sustains the interest till the very end.

HITS - Murugadoss's screenplay is the biggest plus. With the same one line of thuppakki , the screenplay of someone like perarasu would have made thuppakki into one of those vijayakanth's movies - which is why murugadoss's screenplay ( with elements like the sleeper cells ) is the movie's biggest strength , as big as the hero itself.The new villain vidyut jamwal is also refreshing and lends a good hand for the movie's cause. Thankfully no loud punch dialogues from vijay.

MISSES - Thuppakki doesnt have a proper comedy track because its supposed to be a serious movie. If thats the case then why have the romantic portions and songs ??? they only hamper the movie's speed. Jayaram ,sathyan double up as comedians and provide supporting roles which further slows down proceedings. Plus the usual logical questions of masala movies, "gilli" like climax.

                                      Usually in such cat and mouse plots between hero and villain, the recent trend has been to show the villain very powerful and hero just about retaliating before a final blow or the hero completely blows away the villain. But in thuppakki,the villain character is very powerful yet the hero always outhinks and stays ahead in the game (except in the final stages) Things like this is what separates thuppakki from other similar movies at the tamil box office.

                                        I have heard many comments like " Vijay only remakes hit films" , " Vijay is fit for remake of mahesh babu only " and so on.. For all those, Vijay shoots his answers loud through thuppaki  - Its time for the mahesh babu s and Salman khans, to line up and get ready to remake " Namma vijay's " thuppakki !!!