Poster design, trailer & the initial expectation:
For the first time A.R.Murugadoss collaborates with VIjay & Santosh Sivan for his Thuppaakki. When I saw the poster design, I was not that impressed as it looked just like any other poster design with Vijay having pistols in 2 hands.Even the same happened when the other poster (inspired from Richard Gere's movie) was released with Vijay carrying Kajal(wearing army cap) in his hand.Even when the trailer was released, I was quite impressed with the music & cinematography of Santosh Sivan, but I was quite nervous as it should not be one more dud like 7aam arivu
Storyline & its legacy::
Story line is a one liner. A hero/protoganist's effort in stopping the terrorist attacks along with this workforce.But this movie differs from the way Murugadoss has dealt with his screenplay & a acceptable execution.
There are many movies that dealt with Terrorism, TO name a few, I could remember Kuruthipunal aka Drohi omspired from Drohkaal , Black Friday, Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, I love India(Sharathkumar starrer), Terrorist (directed by Santosh Sivan),Wednesday/Unnai Pol Oruvan, Roja & Dilse(both being Maniratnam's flick)and not to leave a series of Vijaykanth's movie. Having Wednesday being an emotional reflection/outburst of a common man as an exception, I remember no other movie in Indian cinema has come up with depicting/portraying the practical solution to clean the terrorism.
Here comes one more Anti-terrorism movie. But A.R.Murugadoss's Thuppaaki dealt with eradicating the terrorist's attack in a very innovative, passionate & in a entertaining way.. Murugadoss doesnot promises to eradicate terrorism, but has has proposed an idea to cut the wings of terrorists and deactivate them. He in fact came back from who he was in Ramanaa which I feel is his all time best & one of Greatest movie ever made by him.
Jagdish(Vijay) from Indian Army comes to Mumbai on a vacation along with his Army camp mates. He encounters Nisha(Kajal) in a Prospective bridal meeting arranged by his parents & he intially gets deceived by her looks & rejects & then again gets attracts when he learns that Nisha is a modern girl with modern outlook & their love scenes are skillfully placed as a cool side of the Jagdish who is romantic & funny. Now initially say for 20 minutes murugadoss lets audience to conceive the lead roles Jagdish & nisha as a breezy starter. It is after first 20 minutes, the movie takes a serious path & we get to know the other face of Jagdish who is in a mission to stop the attacks from Terrorists in Mumbai. Then we get to see both serious racy scenes of Jagdish's mission with some cool romantic scenes & the movie ends on a positive note with A.R.Murugadoss's Dedication to Indian Army.
Characterization:
Vijay as Major/Secret Agent: Jagdish:
Terrorism has a big network & selective encounters can't help in getting to the roots & removing them. A.R.Murugadoss applied his emotional intelligence in framing & building the protagonist character & role very effectively. Character being evolved & built from Secret agent role Come veteran in Indian Army. Probably Only guys with this terrific combo can nail the terrorists along with the roots as they are damn good in planning & tracking the move of the opponent being a grandmaster & also good runners,swimmers(as described by antagonist in a scene) take huge risks & least bothered about their life when it comes to saving their country.
Vijay for a change has turned out an attempt in playing a subtle role although we get to watch his cliched acting as he used to do in his previous flicks. Vijay as usual does some awesome dance numbers & does some great stunts. What makes difference is vijay gets to portray his stunts in a very realistic manner & also Murugadoss has skillfully made sure that the role has some necessary barriers to limit the over acting expressions of Vijay as Murugadoss seem to have diverted the focus of audience in viewing the scene rather than Vijay's expression. Vijay might not be a method actor which was & is evident from his looks & body languages which is not changed except a french beard. Had he came up with ARMY hair cut & Commando's body language, it would have been more better, Murugadoss seems to have lived with it. But Vijay managed to carry his role very decently & surprisingly Vijay's Hindi is also too good. Vijay can be now proud of this movie & this movies easily enters into VIjay's all time best movies. A nice job by Vijay. I can say this inspite of not being a fan of Vijay. Thanks to Murugadoss for getting away from punch dialogues which is seen in vijay's other movies. To me it was like seeing Rajini in Thalapathy breaking all the cliched factors of Vijay's movie & at the same time using Vijay's Strengths. No offense I meant to see the difference in the treatment of actors. otherwise Vijay is no Rajini anyways.
Kajal as Nisha(Boxer Nisha as she introduces herself in a scene)
Nisha is a modern girl, passionate boxer & often comes across with a dilemma in choosing her life partner & takes some time to come to conclusion & then strucks with Jagdish after weighing various parameters.
I felt Kajal has done her part in a very decent way as she could not surpass her performance as her character has nothing to offer. Her hour glass & solidly built physique loosely fits for a boxer although is portrayed in a very few scenes, She dances well in songs, wears some nice costumes, carries them well, able to give sensible reactions when needed & cries where ever necessary. what ever it is. Kajal was fun to watch & much needed as a cream layering for this action movie as we like to have a dessert in a spicy feast.
Murugadoss's Awesome Story , Screenplay & Direction:
From the first till end, all we get to see is Murugadoss's direction. Terrorism might not be a burning issue in Tamilnadu, but a serious concern in Mumbai and various other parts of India. so Murugadoss has selected mumbai as a backdrop & roped Santosh sivan to capture the scenes. Murugadoss seems to have got glimpses of Mumbai when making Hindi version of Ghajini & scripted this movie. Murugadoss has introduced Sleeper cells terms to Audience which is not much known to common man. He also lets the characters to speak Hindi & English to maintain the realism. In Ramanaa Murugadoss told about the long term ACF network fostered by Protagonist as a solution to eradicate corruption and bribery. similary Murugadoss seems to have applied his practical thought in nailing down the roots of terrorists and cutting their wings & has worked out well. He himself has subconsciously placed a scene in Ghajini where a group of jawans in army save asin from kidnappers in the train. Now he has dedicated this movie to Indian Army thereby completing his long lost connection with Indian Army. We dont get to see any glimpse of Army scenes, Murugadoss tactfully tells the passion & patriotism of Indian Army with dialogues of Jagdish when he narrates what his fellow service man went through when trapped in earlier scene. Murugadoss has not tried to be over realistic by keeping commercial items away as he accepts the commercial elements & lives with it along with his signature style.
A wonderful story and Screenplay by Murugadoss with a decent execution in his direction. I wish if he sticks to his core & original ideas like this going forward.
Harris Jayaraj Music:
I loved the background music , especially theme music when Jagdish is on mission. I also loved all the songs as it suited the mood & had a variety with some catchy & hummable tunes. Google google had a lot of attraction to pick one of them. A nice peice of work by HJ. He also has managed to get the rendition of Vijay's voice after quite a long time in Google google.song & has come out well.
Santosh Sivan's Cinematography::
We have seen his work in many movies mostly being off beat & semi classic ones. Thuppaakki being commercial main stream movie has nothing to offer this legend, but we could get a feel of Santosh Sivan's signature touch in few scenes. Since I was completely diverted with the scenes, I could not compeletely notice the work of Cinematography & editing. I felt it complemented the movie effectively without any doubt.
Overall I feel A.R.Murugadoss's Thuppaaki starring Vijay & Kajal might not be a classic movie or a great movie.But definitely a nice entertaining movie & adding to lists of one of the best movie of Murugadoss & Vijay to their list which was due for both since long time. But being a fan of A.R.Murugadoss I expect a lot from him although I'm happy that he has came out from the hang over of 7aam arivu & I'm Longing to see a classic like Ramanaa in his next works. Ghajini might be his classic that brought him much fame with his hindi version with his excellent direction, but the story and screenplay was not very original & native as in Thuppaakki. So Thuppakki takes front seat when compared to Ghajini. Well done Murugadoss
I do have a lot of logical questions, but I felt it can be ignored considering Vijay's presence & murugadoss seems to have left it as One man show at the same time making his signature style of direction.
Thanks to Kalaipuli s Thanu for producing this movie which was also a due form his side for a long time after a classic action flick Kaakka Kaakka
-Ethirajulu Bros
