While Vijay has never been an actor to show much variety in his roles, his resume in the past has atleast included movies like Poovellaam Unakkaaga and Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai, where romance was predominant. But recently he seems to have abandoned variety altogether, playing essentially the same character in formulaic, masala films. Thiruppaachi is another such movie designed to appeal solely to his fans. The only relief is that is does its job in better fashion that his last release Madurey.

Sivagiri(Vijay), who makes sickles in the town of Thiruppaachi, wishes to get his sister Karuppu(Mallika) married off to someone living in a bigger town and jumps at the chance when a canteen owner in Chennai asks for her hand. When Sivagiri accompanies Karuppu to Chennai after her wedding, he is a witness to atrocities committed by rowdies like Sani Sagadai('Kota' Srinivasa Rao) and Pattaasu Balu(Pasupathi), but is forced to remain silent for fear of repercussions for his sister. But when his friend is killed by Sani Sagadai, Sivagiri takes it upon himself to cleanse the city of its bad elements. Meanwhile, Subbu(Trisha), his sister's neighbor, falls for him.

Unlike usual masala movies that serve up sentiments and action alternately, Thiruppaachi makes a clean break between the two. Its first half, which is entirely setup, is devoted entirely to comedy and sentiments with not even a single stunt sequence. But once action rears its head after the intermission, there is no respite from it apart from the obligatory duets. It is one violent fight after the other until the final credits roll. It is to director Perarasu's credit that both halves maintain our interest inspite of the dedication to a particular aspect. While the brother-sister sentiment, the comedy and the anticipation of what's coming keep the first half moving, a pumped-up Vijay, aided by 'punch' dialogs and a variety of fight sequences, keeps the second half rolling.

The movie sticks to comedy and sentiments as long as it remains village-bound. The affection between Vijay and Mallika is characterized well and marked by mostly small acts rather than long-winded dialogs. Vijay's reason for wanting to marry her off to a city-dweller is understandable though it is debatable whether a brother would marry his sister off to an unknown suitor solely on that criterion. The couple of comedy sequences also work well in raising a few laughs. Once the scene shifts to Chennai, we are introduced to a line of interestingly named rowdies and their lawless acts. The movie turns extremely violent and the body count has to be one of the highest in recent times (the first encounter has Vijay killing 21 rowdies!)

The second half is all Vijay and action. Huge suspension of disbelief is required as the simple, naieve village man transforms overnight into a vigilante well-versed in the workings of the rowdies and the police department. But Vijay carries the movie well on his shoulders delivering threats with passion and going after the rowdies with vigor. Many of the dialogs here, like his conversations with the police and the rowdies, are crowd-pleasing and delivered very well by Vijay. The tactics he uses to dispose off the rowdies are also varied and clever with the way he gets to Pasupathy being the best. The biggest casualty in the proceedings is romance with Trisha reduced to meeting Vijay exactly twice at the beach to pave the way for two duets.

Vijay does his usual stuff, fighting and dancing energetically. Trisha looks good as usual but is relegated to the sidelines in her lightest role to date. Pasupathi scores over 'Kota' Srinivasa Rao with his dialog delivery while Manoj.K.Jayan and Yugendran provide good support. Dhina goes the duppanguthu route with four of the songs sounding the same. Even the one melodious song, Kannum Kannum Thaan... is marred by some rap-like interludes. But the picturization of these interludes is different and peps up the otherwise pedestrian song.