Vijay's "Gilli", directed by Dharani, was the biggest grosser of 2004. So it is natural that expectations run very high for his Pongal release "Thirupachi".

That his heroine is again Trisha Krishnan, with whom he starred in "Gilli", has heightened hopes for the film's commercial, if not artistic, success.

"Thirupachi" is Vijay's 40th film and the fourth for producer R.B. Chowdhary of Supergood Films. Vijay's earlier films with the same production company, "Poove Unakage", "Love Today" and "Thullatha Manamum Thullum", were super hits while "Shahjahan" was an average grosser.

Is he any different in his 40th film from Vijay of his 38th or 39th or even the 10th?

Hardly. Unlike his contemporaries Ajith, Prashanth, Madhavan or Surya, Vijay plays safe all the time. He looks the same in all his films, and his films also have the same look.

"Thirupachi" looks the same as "Gilli", with Trisha there with him in all the frames. All his films follow the same commercial pattern, romance, action, sentiment and comedy. But who complains when all his films are hits!

"Thirupachi" is a typical Vijay action 'masala' that would satisfy all his fans. The story takes place in a village called Tirupachi near Madurai, famous for its sickles (aruvaal). Vijay (Sivagiri) makes sickles for a living. He is an aggressive person but has a soft corner for his only sister played by Mallika of "Autograph" fame.

Besides the sister-brother theme, there is the mother-son bond too. Rajalakshmi, who shot to fame long ago with "Sankarabharanam", plays Vijay's mother and Vinodraj (actor Vikram's father) is his father.

Sivagiri takes the initiative and gets his sister married off to a nice guy but still takes care of all her needs. On a visit to Chennai to see off a friend going to Dubai, he meets Subha (Trisha). Once the romance is over, the action starts. The goons (Kota Srinivasa Rao, Pasupathi and Aryan) enter. Sivagiri beats them up and the film ends.

Helping in the action is Manoj K. Jayan as Rajaguru, the police commissioner.

The film is scripted and directed by debutant director Perarasan. He was an assistant to directors like Maharajan, Dharani, and Ramanarayanan. Perarasan has also written the lyrics, set to very ordinary tunes by Dhina.

There are six songs in the film, one of them shot in the Table Mountains in South Africa. Cinematography is by S. Saravanan, art by M. Prabhakar, editing by V. Jayashankar and choreography by Shivshankar, Raju Sundaram, Kalyan and Sophie.

In all probability, "Thirupachi" will be another "Gilli" save for the songs.