'Thuppakki Munai' - Message driven encounter drama
 
Dinesh Selvaraj the son of legendary screenwriter "Annakili" Selvaraj has attempted a novel take on the encounter cop tale with strong underlying messages.  Whether this wannabe edge of the seat thriller 'Thuppakki Munai' finds its target audience remains to be seen.

Billa Bose (Vikram Prabhu) is a Mumbai based encounter specialist who believes that every bullet that he possesses has a criminal's name written on it.  He has a strained relationship with his mother and his profession also comes in the way of a possible love with Prime Minister's PA (Hansika Motwani).  Bose is called on duty to Kanyakumari to finish off a Bihari criminal Azad who has raped and murdered the fifteen-year-old daughter of a barber (M.S. Bhaskar).  In town the hardened cop deduces that the person he is out to kill may be innocent and sets out on a race against time to find and finish off the real killers.  How he does it forms the rest of the story.

Billa Bose is a role that is tailor-made for the tall and well built Vikram Prabhu and he has performed it with utmost earnestness.  The scenes when he struggles to convince his mother that he is human indeed and when he looks deep into the eyes of the Bihari in search of his innocence are scenes that VP shines.  Needless to say he is excellent in the action episodes but it is the love portion with Hansika that sticks out like a sore thumb and serves as the speed breaker to the screenplay.  M.S. Bhaskar almost plays the parallel hero and he brings his vast experience to express the tragedy of a widower losing his teenage daughter to rape and also the common man's attempt to wreak revenge on those who took the life of his dear one.  Hansika is pretty functional as the girlfriend who helps out the hero mostly on the phone.  Vela Ramamurthy, Marimuthu and the Mirchi Shah who plays Azad are all apt in their respective roles.

L.V. Ganesan and L.V. Muthukumaraswamy have scored the music, Rasamathi has taken care of the cinematography and Bhuvan Srinivasan the editing.  Dinesh Selvaraj has chosen a novel subject and in the climax, his message too is surely thought-provoking and creates an impact.   However a screenplay that should have been handled in a raw and realistic manner suffers from the commercial telling loaded with heroism, powerful politician villain and the high flying stunts which marrs a film with a great potential.  Kalaipuli S Thanu and Benze Productions have jointly produced this venture and provided whatever necessary for the script.

Verdict : Go for it if you fancy a different take on the encounter cop genre movie with a strong message