Tamil Dream Team Vijay & AR Murugadoss Bring You THUPAKKI

It's been a year since Tamil superstar director AR Murugadoss and superstar actor Vijay clashed at the box office on Diwali of 2011. AR Murugadoss' 7am Arivu was an ambitious critical failure/box office success while Vijay's Velayudham was a critic proof hit with the masses in rural Tamil Nadu. Neither film was particularly well-received, even though both were highly anticipated by fans and aficionados alike. This year they'll be meeting at the box office again, but as collaborators as AR Murugadoss directs Vijay in his latest film, Thupakki.

This Diwali entry in the Tamil calendar has been, appropriately, the most anticipated film of the year for many fans. Murugadoss has a solid history of box office and critical successes, in spite of the hiccup of 7am Arivu and Vijay is one of Tamil cinema's most beloved heroes. I've heard no rumblings of the plot, but according to this new teaser, there will be fighting and dancing, so that's good. Murugadoss has a bad habit of overly placating mass concerns by shoehorning unnecessary masala elements into his otherwise high-concept films, but I remain optimistic. When Murugadoss is on, as in the opening twenty minutes of 7am Arivu, he's a force to be reckoned with and one of the most talented filmmakers in India. Let's just hope he can keep himself in check and not go overboard with sentimentalism.

Vijay has also had his share of success, starring in one of the biggest Tamil films of 2012, Nanban, for another superstar director, Shankar (Enthiran/Robot). I hated Nanban, but there's no denying that Vijay has a certain charm, I can't imagine that Thupakki will be any worse than Nanban, so it's got that going for it.

It seems a bit late in the day for Thupakki to finally get a forty second teaser with the film opening in less than a month, but I'll take what I can get. I have faith that this team can make good things happen, let's just hope I'm not disappointed again.