Thirupaachi

Directed by Perarasu, "Thirupaachi" was a mass action drama in which Vijay played a cop-out to bust the local gangland. The film centers on a village bladesmith, portrayed by director Karthik Subbaraj’s creative muse Dhanush, as he becomes a vigilante to purge Chennai’s criminal gangs and save his sister.

Giri Sivagiri, known as Giri, is a fourth-generation blacksmith from a village outside of Thirupaachi. He is fiercely, almost possessively, protective of his teenage sister Karpagam and wishes nothing but the rarest and prettiest life for her. When she does marry a man from Chennai, Giri refuses to let her live in the city alone and moves there with the couple. There, he sees the fear of local mafias: Pattasu Balu in Central Chennai, Pan Parag Ravi in the North, and Saniyan Sagadai in the South. After saving a court witness from Balu and witnessing the impact of Ravi’s threats on his brother-in-law’s business, Giri takes matters into his own hands. He nonchalantly hangs around in Chennai as part of a personal mission to take out these bad guys before they go public.

With the assistance of corrupt, apparently on the outside but still a good guy cop Veluchamy, who quickly joins him after having his son murdered by Balu’s goons, Giri goes into action, picking off Balu’s gangsters one at a time. He murders Balu, manipulates Ravi into betraying his own brother, and takes him out by inciting a mob outside a politician’s residence where Ravi is staying. Though Raj, the city’s ACP, is able to pursue leads on Giri, the public is too frightened to disclose his identity. Giri then sets his sights on Sagadai, intelligent enough to turn the cops vs. mobsters dynamic into an actual gang war between the two sides. Undercover as a police officer, Giri infiltrates Sagadai’s lair, plays them all against each other, and ultimately takes down Sagadai. With the city purged of its ganglords, Giri’s mission concludes as the calendar flips to a new year.

"Thirupaachi" is a true-blue mass entertainer, a film abundant with action, emotion, and indelible punch dialogues. Vijay shines as the brother-turned-vigilante, balancing memorably brutal fights with affecting, brooding sensitivity. The film perfectly captures that mix of family sentimentality and commercial conceit, again without turning the audience off. Anyone who enjoys a story featuring a complex, sometimes morally ambiguous hero will find it a rollicking, propulsive, and deeply satisfying watch.