Spoilers ahead…
Read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/thuppaki-munai-movie-review-baradwaj-rangan-vikram-prabhu-hansika-motwani/
Sometimes, after watching a movie, I have to go back to my review of the director’s earlier film to remind myself that my expectations (for the new film) weren’t entirely off-base. That’s what I did after Dinesh Selvaraj’s thoroughly underwhelming Thuppakki Munai (Gunpoint). About his first film, Naalu Peruku Nalladhuna Edhuvum Thappilla, I’d written, solid writing… fascinating character… clever reveals… sometimes aggressively showy filmmaking… moralising is kept to a minimum… This film seems as if the director set about trying to prove me wrong on every count. Even the craft is missing. The overall crudeness (wait till you get to the ugly “touch” involving a candle) made me wish for… aggressively showy filmmaking. At least, you can get off on the frames.
The premise isn’t bad. Vikram Prabhu plays a trigger-happy encounter cop named Birla Bose. The name turns out to be the most interesting thing about him. What prompts a parent to pick such a name? The desire to sow, very early on, the seeds of entrepreneurship in the child, in which case are there siblings named Tata Bose and Ambani Bose? How, then, did Birla end up a cop? He keeps shooting people in the forehead, with zero respect for due process. I thought he’d be someone with serious issues — a rogue cop whose morality is suspect. As it turns out, it’s just a thing, one of those “cool” character traits that’s the screenwriting equivalent of a snazzy watch or an “I saw 2.0 FDFS” status message.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
krishna prasad
December 14, 2018
Mythili not Tamil sounding? May not be in the league of kuzhalvai mozhis and kopperundevis though.. day not far off wen v will c Amy Jackson as sentamizhchelvi.
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shaviswa
December 15, 2018
Ooooh…….THAT bad huh?
These are the reviews I look forward to though 🙂
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Siva
December 15, 2018
BR: “ When Birla walks into a posh hotel to meet his girlfriend’s (Hansika Motwani) father, the latter turns to her and says, “Good choice.” Based on what? The gun in his pocket? As for Hansika, she can’t even seem to mouth “Aey!” convincingly. Mercifully, there’s not much of a romantic track.”
May be based on his full beard style? Which, apparently seems to be the mandate these days for every other Tamil film male lead to sport in at least one of their movies. It feels really tiresome to me to see almost all of them in this appearance lately. These men come off to me as a line of goats jumping an imaginary stick held in front of them. It doesn’t matter even if the actual stick was held in front of only the first goat in the line. The rest of the goats just keep jumping, whether or not there is a stick in front of them. And no wonder all of them are doing this these days, given their infamous history with the Soul Patch (a worm like beard below the lower lip). Vikram (Majaa, 2005) and Rajinikanth (Sivaji, 2007) paved way for that initially. And then in between and after, every other goat followed suit. No originality whatsoever. Ugh
And heyyyy …. it has been quite a bit since we have had a movie with our beloved I.S.I Mark in it, eh, BR? 😀 And you didn’t disappoint. I would say the fault was on your side anyway. What did you expect off a movie that starred our ISI in the first place? After all, it was still going to be ISI, wasn’t it? 😀 😀
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Venky
December 15, 2018
Mythili is not, strictly speaking, tamizh-sounding because it refers to Sita of Ramayana, a sanskrit epic-Daughter of the king of Mithila, hence mythili. Also, as far as tamil cinema is concerned, ever since T. Rajendar made it a common household name through his film “Mythili ennai kadhali”, it has become a cinemaesque name for female characters in movies. Speaking of T.R., BR’s last line in this review could well be the English equivalent of the director’s unrelenting rhyming dialogues!
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Vikram S
December 15, 2018
Talent talons (winkey emoji face laughing)
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vinjk
December 17, 2018
” That overhead shot with a CG eagle flying past the screen, with an audio-library screech”
That could be meta for director’s head shot to the viewer and they screaming…
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Priya Arun
December 20, 2018
@Venky “thedivandhom talentsu, kadachidhupaar talonsu” (like this only, no?) 🙂
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Priya Arun
December 20, 2018
For some strange reason, I always look forward to reading your reviews of obviously bad films.
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brangan
December 20, 2018
I got this comment. Anyone else liked this film?
Good evening sir. Just wanted to text you about one thing. Don’t mistake me. I just saw Thuppaki Munai after seeing your review. It was house full and just like me a lot of people applauded the movie. I feel the review of yours for thuppaki munai when compared to other reviews of yours, is slightly not in sync with yourself as I usually feel most ur reviews are almost correct. But this one you had given 1.5 stars and this was a damn good movie. I think ur busy schedule has caused your reviews to become more of a job and less of passion. Sometimes it’s good to re visit ourselves. Because this thuppaki munai review of urs seems to be flawed. Don’t mistake me. This is my review of your review. Your persepective if this movie could be different than mine, but you had given 1.5 stars which is totally not acceptable at all. If I had not seen the movie based on ur review then I would have made an error myself. My review on your review this time is (minus 1.5) I am sure you will also respect my opinion just like I respect yours most of the time. Thank you !
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Priya Arun
December 20, 2018
Whattey!
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Siva
December 20, 2018
BR: ” I got this comment. Anyone else liked this film? ”
I have not seen it. But I don’t think I might like it even if I saw it. I have 2 reasons.
1) It stars our beloved I.S.I Mark as the female lead. This nickname of hers (courtesy: BR) itself kind of suggests what is in store for us in the movie. Why take the risk then? On purpose!
2) Obviously — the review, and the 1.5 stars do play a part. In the past two years, I have not voluntarily* seen any Tamil movie with less than 4 stars from BR (I know, very high expectations. But I am on a budget now. So this benchmark has weirdly helped me save a lot of bucks). There have been a few exceptions though (read: family members forced me to take them to a few dumb movies).
From what I could recollect, — if I am not missing something — , the only Tamil movies for which BR has given 4 stars in the past two years or so are:
Dhuruvangall Pathinaaru — I felt the 4 stars were spot on. I loved this too. And spent days trying to decipher the multi-threaded screenplay’s intricacies. It was fun 🙂
Aruvi — Enough said. Loved it.
Maanagaram — I felt this one really didn’t deserve the 4 stars. May be even a 3.5, but I just could not place it on the same standard as D-16. But that was just me. While BR might have seen it as a whole creative product, my view was totally personal and subjective. I did not like a couple of aspects of the movie. Firtsly, I felt that it promoted (may be inadvertently) drinking. It had unnecessary TASMAC bar scenes that showed pouring, mixing and drinking the booze, with the male lead and his friends yammering some nonsense — which, i felt, did not advance the screenplay in any way. The arc could have worked very well for me even if they had just shown the person (or people) walking out of the TASMAC bar, in an already drunken state. While I got that the fight that ensues immediately after (outside the TASMAC bar) is one of the most essential parts that formed the arc of the screenplay, I just could not see the justification for the presence (in an otherwise tight screenplay) of the pouring, mixing and drinking shots and the incessant yammering inside the TASMAC bar. Secondly, I felt the movie promoted stalking. One of the male leads endlessly stalks the female lead, constantly annoying her to love him. One fine night, she finally gives in, because of a superb reason — her roommate forces her to do it. Awesome, no?
And yes, I know — my take on Maanagaram is totally black and white. Based on face value. But that is how different minds respond to different movies, right? So, I am absolutely fine with BR’s 4 stars for Maanagaram.
And then there are the few of us in this forum, who are not necessarily a fan of Gautam Vasudev Menon’s movies. And few of us don’t like how Mani Ratnam handles certain aspects of his movies (mostly since Alaipayuthey). And there are few of us who think BR has (albeit subconsciously) a soft spot for both these filmmakers.
Then again, even the few of us who fall under all of these categories are (mostly) totally fine with BR’s takes on movies. Sometimes we might not agree to it, but we are okay with his takes nonetheless. And we respect it. Because it is HIS take. And only his. Because that is just one person.
Because I was that person once. I cited the same 2 reasons I have briefed above and emailed it to BR after reading the Maanagaram review and seeing the 4 stars. Only, I was asking BR to be more strict in his reviews. 😀
So hopefully, the person who wrote that email to BR would come back here, read all the comments here, and also hopefully understand that it is just one person’s view.
This — I believe — is the prime reason why most of us keep coming back here. Because even though we might disagree with the reviews sometimes, they are intriguing all the same.
P.S:
BR, your Twitter Bio says you are an Editor of Film Companion. Could you please enlighten us — does that position give you complete control over the STAR ratings? Because we all have read (elsewhere), that sometimes critics don’t have control of the STAR rating that appears in their movie reviews.
I am totally aware of your stance on the STAR rating system though — that readers must read the full review and should not draw conclusions solely based on just the STAR rating. In that regard, I like how you guys do it at Film Companion — the STAR rating appears at the bottom-most part of the review page and not atop the review.
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Rahini David
December 21, 2018
BR, I have been reading your take on movies for some 10 straight years and I decided around “Barfi” itself that I won’t like the movies you like and should probably not write off movies that you don’t like. Very often felt, “If this the kind of movie that BR is kind towards, then how bad would the movies he isn’t kind to be”
The review was a good read. It sounds like your honest opinion. I guess you’d have to see/read a couple of reviews of this particular movie to check if this is THAT beloved/well-made a movie as the LW claims.
Regarding the “I think ur busy schedule has caused your reviews to become more of a job and less of passion.”
You have already replied to this in some other thread. You watch WAY more films than the average Joe that you can’t make the “this is what the average person will like” predictions anymore. IMO you were not great at those predictions to begin with.
Does that mean that it is becoming more of a job and less of a passion to you? SOME reviews do sound tired. Like you don’t want to dignify the movie even with bothering to be witty about it. But not in general or as a rule.
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Siva
December 22, 2018
Okay this is bizarre 😦
https://newstodaynet.com/index.php/2018/12/21/police-complaint-against-actress-hansika/
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krishikari
December 22, 2018
Awesome poster of Maha.
@rahini My reactions are similar, don’t often like the same things BR does while agreeing with or learning something from most of his observations and critiques. Your comment made me go back and read the Barfi review as it had made me absolutely cringe at the time. The self-conscious whimsy and general ‘over’ portrayal of physical and mental challenges in both leads makes me shudder even now, whereas i loved “Bareilly ki Barfi” unreservedly and it seems BR did not.
Agree with BR wholeheartedly about some movies though. So can’t take any review as a guide to whether I will personally enjoy the film or not.
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Siva
December 23, 2018
krishikari: ” Awesome poster of Maha. ”
And then the police complaint happened (There is a link to a related news article in my previous comment, just above the poster).
And then she had to delete her poster announcement tweet from earlier. This whole debacle was what I had referred to as bizarre.
For every damn thing, one idiot or another is offended for some reason, and files a police complaint and/or court case. Is there even a slightest amount of creative freedom left in our country?
Hell, I am even waiting for that fine day when some whacko files a complaint/case against BR, taking offense at one of his reviews. (You have been a celebrity for some years now BR. It is bound to happen sooner or later 😛 ; Beware 😀 )
” The self-conscious whimsy and general ‘over’ portrayal of physical and mental challenges in both leads makes me shudder even now ”
This is exactly how I felt (I still do; Ugh) when I watched Vikram’s overplay of that man-child character in Deiva Thirumagal (In the original, for his portrayal as Sam, Sean Penn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor).
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Honest Raj
December 23, 2018
The one image that comes to my mind whenever I think of Hansika:
Shame shame (Senthil style)!
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