Thuppakki

February 20, 2021

Thuppakki is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by AR Murugadoss. Produced by Kalaippuli S. Thanu under his studio V Creations, and distributed by Gemini Film Circuit, the film stars Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal, with Sathyan, Vidyut Jammwal and Jayaram in supporting roles. It revolves around an Indian Army (Vijay) officer on a mission to track down, destroy and deactivate a sleeper cell, after witnessing and barely escaping a bomb blast executed by the cell.

The project featuring Vijay's first collaboration with Murugadoss, was reported on July 2011, and the film's title was formally announced on the same year in December. Principal photography of the film commenced in January 2012 and ended in October 2012. Filming mostly took place in Mumbai, except for two song sequences which were taken in Bangkok and Switzerland respectively. The film's music was composed by Harris Jayaraj with cinematography handled by Santosh Sivan and editing done by A. Sreekar Prasad respectively.

Thuppakki was released on 13 November 2012, Diwali day. The film went through numerous controversies, including protests from Islamic fringe groups, due to the objectionable portrayal of Islamic community in the film. Nevertheless, it received positive reviews and became a major commercial success, grossing over ₹1 billion (US$14 million) within 11 days of its release. It went on to receive seven Filmfare Awards South nominations in the Tamil branch, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Vijay. In 2014, Murugadoss remade the film in Hindi as Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, while Baba Yadav remade it in Bengali as Game.

Plot

Jagadish Dhanapal, an intelligence officer in the Indian Army, returns to Mumbai from Kashmir. On his arrival, his parents and younger sisters force him to see Nisha, who they choose for him to be married to. At the bride-viewing ceremony, Jagadish makes up excuses to avoid marrying her, which includes commenting about her being old-fashioned. On the contrary, Nisha is a university-level boxer, who is completely modern in her outlook. Jagadish notices her in a boxing match and falls in love with her instantly. Nisha reciprocates after refusing him initially.

One day, Jagadish witnesses the explosion of a bus in which he and his police officer-friend Balaji had travelled. He manages to capture the man who laid the bomb, but he escapes from the hospital where he was kept under custody. Jagadish captures the bomber again, and also forces the police officer who helped the bomber's escape, to commit suicide. Jagadish soon learns that the bomber is a mere executor, a sleeper agent, whose only role was to plant the bomb. He also discovers that the sleeper cell, which the bomber belongs to, has planned various such attacks in the city in a couple of days. Enlisting the help of his fellow army men and Balaji, Jagadish manages to thwart these attacks and kill the sleeper agent leader's brother and eleven other agents, including the previously captured sleeper agent.

When the leader of the sleeper cell learns about the role of Jagdish in thwarting the attack, he begins to target the families of the army men, except Jagadish, by kidnapping someone close to them. When Jagadish realises the plan, he substitutes one of the people to be kidnapped, with his younger sister Sanjana. Using his pet dog and his sister's dupatta, he manages to reach the sleeper cell's hideout, rescuing his sister, who was about to be killed after Jagadish's bluff was exposed, and the other victims and eliminating the sleeper agents assembled there. The second-in-command of the sleeper agents is captured and killed by Jagdish.

With this attack too having failed, the sleeper cell leader decides to target Jagadish himself. He kills one of Jagadish's friends and asks Jagadish to surrender to him or else there would be more attacks. Jagadish decides to sacrifice his life and devises a plan with his fellow army men. Jagadish meets the leader in a ship, which has been rigged with a bomb planted by another friend of Jagadish. When he learns about the leader's plan of infiltrating the Indian Army with sleeper agents with the help of a traitor in the Indian Defense — Kameeruddin IAS, the current Joint Secretary in Defence, Jagadish decides to abandon his suicidal plan. He mocks the leader and compels him to a fight before escaping in a boat, with the leader as hostage. After the ship explodes, he kills the bewildered leader. Jagadish confronts Kameeruddin and forces him to commit suicide, before returning to Kashmir along with his fellow army men.