After a brief hiatus with back to back duds, Vikram Prabhu is back with an intriguing crime thriller, Thuppakki Munai. Being directed by Dinesh Selvaraj of Naalu Peruku Nallathu Na Ethuvum Thappilla, Thuppakki Munai stars Vikram Prabhu, Hansika Motwani, MS Bhaskar, Vela Ramamoorthy and others.
Birla Bose (Vikram Prabhu), an encounter specialist is a dynamic, ferocious and a ruthless officer who believes that only gun & bullets and every criminal's name is etched on the gun/bullet. He doesn't regret his actions but instead, takes pride in his work. His mother, a doctor, thinks a bit opposite and believes that a drop of blood on the floor stains the house, metaphorically.
Bose, who runs with his string of assignments, gets another one to eliminate a criminal named Azad (Mirchi Sha), who is accused of raping & murdering a 15-year-old girl in a brutal manner. For a very trivial reason, the encounter is deferred and Azad gets a breather for a temporary period. But it is during this period where Bose doubts whether Azad is the actual offender? Will his element of doubt prove to be true? If so, who is the culprit? Will Bose be able to win-over eventually? All these form the rest of the plot. While Vikram Prabhu is stiff and physically appealing as a police officer, his facial expressions and body language could have been even better. Hansika Motawani is a glam doll again but does a pale job with her lip-sync, despite carrying over a decade's experience in the cinema field. MS Bhaskar comes in and offers a good amount of respite, but not too frequently. Mirchi Sha is convincing with his limited space but a set of antagonists in the movie are seen as mere space fillers which kind of boosts the image of the protagonist. Vaseegaran S's small-time role assures of a formidable antagonist in the making while the remaining cast doesn't have much to do. Dinesh Selvaraj's writing on papers would have been terrific as this is an engaging screenplay which has faltered a bit during the course of execution. Just to showcase that Bose is an expert in encounter, the previous encounters by the police officer looks superficial which falls flat. The supposed romance track also doesn't invoke much emotions and appears to be there just of the sake of it. The overall package including decent BGM, cinematography and the adequate production values bat positively for the movie without hampering the quality. Thuppakki Munai is a genuine attempt with its own share of ups & downs. Importantly, the film scores in a good way at the end.