Please read disclaimer before reading this post – if you haven’t already.
Thuppaakki is the story of a Tamil speaking army man on a holiday saving Mumbai from Islamic terrorists from the north west of India (while he also is looking to be married).
Army > Police
For comic value or otherwise, the film talks more times than can be ignored about the greatness of the army over the police. In jest by Sathyan or in all seriousness by the villain who says ‘the only place we don’t have a sleeper cell in the country is the Indian army’. Subtly too, the 12 men on a holiday from the army, shoot out 12 sleeper cell terrorists in some of the most popular places in Mumbai. The state police are able to only find out that all the men shot are terrorists (because they all had explosives) and have no clue who shot them. The film ends with “army thaan da perusu” like that was meant to be the moral of the story.
Army can do whatever they want
Some army men come into the city, possess guns, torture people (terrorists apparently) by chopping off their fingers, shoot people down in some of the most crowded areas, make plastic bombs with the explosives admittedly brought to the city through influence, attempt to conduct suicide missions, blow up ships and all sorts of such things. The point here is not the logic of any of this, mind you, but the blind portrayal of almost criminal activity by military men as acceptable – in fact sacrificial. That whole sequence with Jayaram in it: The lesser said about it, the better.
Modern, physically strong, outspoken women are now desirable
There is a love track – the hero chasing the heroine and her chasing him in return. She is first seen as the ideal Tamil girl – long hair, short smile, politeness and all that. The hero ‘rejects’ her because he wants a modern, outspoken girl. Turns out she is a boxer (who is hurt punching a two-wheeler mirror – but that’s a different story), wears micro minis, goes partying and slaps her father (since when is the opposite of ‘adakkam’?). When the hero finds her out, he falls in love.
Now she ‘rejects’ him. Then she looks at her very-good-looking-during-college-days-friend marry a bald man and decides that she should cling on to Jagadish (Vijay of course) because he is both handsome and successful – because that’s how love happens for women? Anyway, when they do go out, none of her modern-ness or boxing skills help save the city from terrorism. So basically, she could have been done away with.
In essence
As @rathna_k was saying on Twitter, this is just 7 Aum Arivu with terrorists from the north west wearing scarves around their heads, reading urdu scripts, praying before killing, have names such a Mohammad/ Arif/ Ali etc. The same rhetoric of sacrifice, fighting (violently) for the country (which is now India because the hero lives in Mumbai), black and white of right and wrong etc. There is also nokkuvarmam – if only as a mention in a song.
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