Poove Unakaaga, Kathalukku Mariyathai, Love Today, Priyamudan, Nilaave Vaa, Thullatha Manamum Thullum, Kushi, Friends etc. were some of the movies that had Vijay played simple characters which also made him favorite among the youth and I had a liking too until he hit a road block, where he started making larger than life characters, after a string of remade failures. He was made fun of his larger than life poor characters deservingly and even he realized its time to shift gears to change the same. Nanban, Thuppakki, Yohan (before it was dropped) were such desperate efforts. His collaboration with AR Murugadoss is always going to be a calculative risk where the latter is well known for his poetic/stylish presentation of the heroism and the director doesn't disappoint.
Thuppakki is an out and out AR Murugadoss film that fitted Vijay to the Tee. The entire movie happens during Vijay's 40 day vacation from Indian Army and that bolsters the credibility of the scenes and script. Although it is no classic, the scenes are very crisply shot and well thought out. Vijay probably needs to do atleast 5 such movies to make the audience(not his fans ofcourse) to stop being ridiculed of his antics despite genuine efforts. Vijay has performed well and I always believed he is a good actor but just that his choice of scripts did not adorn his acting skills well.
Heaping laurels on Vijay's dancing skills and Santosh Sivan's Photography will be very cliched and that is definitely taken for granted. The highlight of the movie is the plot(Sleeper cells) and the intelligent play. However, I thought the romance track, despite being enjoyable in patches, reduced the intensity of the script. Sathyan was good. Jayaram's role is cliched. Well, so this movie is completely driven on Vijay; and Vidyut to some extent. Vijay carries it brilliantly and is a treat for his fans for sure.
Can Music directors think different for scoring music to project the evilness of a villain?. Harris still uses ARR format sounds that he used during Roja, Kadhalan times. Poor work there! Harris has been very mediocre in his recent flicks. However, unfortunately it is better than many regular masala stuff.
Thuppakki has already been declared a blockbuster and Vijay is surely in his top period at the box office with back to back hits since 2 years and Thuppakki will only be the icing on the top and no doubts will be a best grosser of South Indian Cinema in the recent times. I hope this success deviates him from mindless masala hoping his next project with AL Vijay and "potential" movies with Ameer Sultan and KV Anand tries the same. Bagging the 2 biggest hits under his belt this year, Vijay is clearly a winner at the box office of Tamil Cinema in the year 2012.
Verdict - 3.5/5; Murugadoss didn't disappoint but I still thought Thuppakki should have been a "Brilliant film" instead of "Good film". This pan Indian script is sure to click in Hindi as well; A true Diwali 1000 wala.
