Fizzled Out.

"I'm waiting".

These words set a million people on fire, as Ilayathalapathi Vijay, after going on a controversial flop-streak, set out on his next major release, after Velayudham and Nanban looked up for him. And so released Thuppaki, starring Vijay, Kajal Aggarwal, Vidyut Jamal, and several others, directed by A.R.Murugadoss.

It is the story of Jagdish, an officer in the Indian Army, and a member of the DIA (which is apparently India's own CIA), who, on his vacation from military service, takes on a terrorist organisation that plans to blow up Mumbai into bits and pieces, with the help of sleeper cells. Sleeper cells are ordinary men who, driven by negative motives, decide to take up terrorism, where their setup as the common man helps them achieve their sinister goals better. While my definition may or may not be satisfactory, Murugadoss has made sure that the idea of sleeper cells enter into the minds of audiences, just like how he turned Bodhidharman into a household name, through his last project 7Aam Arivu.

So, what Thuppaki is, is yet another ordinary film where the hero battles against a huge organisation of crime single-handedly, and ends up with victory. And so does Jagadish, exactly in his one-month vacation and gets back to work in time. Ilayathalapathy Vijay, is honestly growing younger by the day, and kudos to the costume designers who've supported this handsome man with exceptional styling. Kajal Aggrwal doesn't have much to do in this movie, and into the line of Tamil cinema, where the heroine is nothing but eye candy, falls Thuppaki. Vidyut Jamal, last seen in Billa II, well, nothing extraordinary here for him, either. Sathyan and Jeyaram, have been roped in for the comedy quotient, and they don't do much except evoke a few weak laughs here and there.

The cast involves big names - Santhosh Sivan's mastery in the camera work shines all through the movie, and Sreekar Prasad does his usual, as well. The music and it's visual treatment, is rather forgettable, except for the hit track 'Google Google', and Vijay's usually-energy-pumping intro songs got into a decline since Sura, and they've been going down ever since, including Thuppaki.

Murugadoss believed he'd made a masterpiece with 7aam Arivu, while the audience begged to differ. While the hype for Thuppaki skyrocketed, it sadly does not live up to it. The story is something we've seen a million times (half a million of that contributed to Tamil Cinema only by Vijayakanth, though I believe Vijay delivers a more suave, and rather "low-key" portrayal than him), while it contains some neat twists in its runtime, some high peak points, and neat punch dialogues.This film is dedicated to the members of the INA and family, and takes it's good time emphasizing on their hardships and their courage (which is commendable), while it spends the rest ranting about sleeper cells. Nevertheless, it is your usual illogical mass Tamil movie that is perhaps worth a watch, and a must-watch for Vijay fans.

Aditya Baskaran