Chronicling Karuppu as a comeback!

A still from the Tamil film Karuppu, starring Suriya

I must confess, my interest in Tamil commercial cinema is, chiefly, cultural. As in to savour a film industry that supplies its audience entertainment and its partisan politics - often making both one, and the same thing. Consensual, collective hypnosis is complete. To the extent that it could equally befuddle local intellectual elites, sometimes.

As I noticed, closely following live coverage of 2026 Tamil Nadu (TN) elections on Prannoy Roy's DeKoder, wherein The Hindu's venerated journalist N Ram - as with pretty much everyone - suggested hardly any seats for superstar Vijay, in the fray, once results are in. Vijay became the chief minister of TN!

Some of their cynicism could've also emerged from debutant Kamal Haasan's zero-seat at the 2021 TN elections - OG superstar MGR's DMK, and its offshoot AIADMK, deemed as bulwarks impossible to dislodge/defeat. Such stuff remains unparalleled in world cinema's history. Also, there are tiny pieces of TN, everywhere, outside TN - from San Francisco, Singapore to Sion (in Mumbai). The latter is where I was at, to catch the ‘only-fan' (club) screening of superstar Suriya's blockbuster, Karuppu.

As in, at the low-priced multiplex, Moviemax (formerly Cinemax), the Tamil-tentpole favourite, in Mumbai's central suburb. Matunga's iconic, Aurora, is no more.

Last time I was inside Sion-Moviemax was for the first day, first show of Vijay's Leo (2023) - experiencing the same pandemonium, preceding opening credits, with men, women, children, screeching, dancing, blasting confetti from cardboard rocket launchers, throughout. Leo, somehow, reminded me of Mukul Anand's Hum (1991). Vijay, subsequently, quit cinema, altogether, to enter electoral politics, at the peak of his stardom.

Karuppu is Suriya's comeback film (crossing R100 crore at the box office, within its first week). True for Tamil cinema itself, that hadn't posted such footfalls since Rajinikanth's Coolie (August, 2025)!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from my PoV, Tamil superstardom seems to operate in twos - generation-wise, MGR-Sivaji Ganesan; Rajini-Kamal; lately, Dhanush-Simbu; right before that, Vijay-Ajith.

I know all analogies are reductive. But for a Bollywood argument's sake, let's assume that one (say, Ajith) is more Shah Rukh Khan (charismatic); the other (Vijay), veering towards Salman (massy). I've often found Suriya closer to Aamir.

Maybe that connection comes from Ghajini (2005), with Suriya, that Aamir remade in 2008 - unwittingly birthing Bollywood's crappy ‘100 crore club'.

Ajay Devgn, likewise, owes Suriya, the first Singam (2010), that unveiled Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe, thereafter. Same with Suriya-starrer Kaakha Kaakha (2003), which launched John Abraham's Force (2011) franchise.

But it's really two films, back-to-back, which went straight to streaming (Prime Video), during the pandemic, with such sorted subjects, that they would've equally sailed through, without stardom getting in the way of the story - Jai Bhim (court-room drama, 2021), and Soorarai Pottru (biopic, 2020) - where Suriya earned universal cred.

Akshay Kumar remade Soorarai Pottru as Sarfira (2024). He needn't have. Audiences had begun accessing all languages on OTTs. What followed the pandemic? The colossal ‘pan-India' theatrical spectacles!

Hence, Suriya's Kanguva (2024), that felt as immeasurably stunning, to me, as completely soulless. And Retro (2025) - similarly, a senseless saga that, frankly, I found hard to sit through! Karuppu begins with thanks to Vijay in the opening slate - paying homage to Leo (2023), later, along with hat-tips to Ajith, Rajini, Dhanush, even Dulquer Salmaan, Mammootty…

The film is a lethal exposé on the stinking rot in the legal system - whereby a poor Malayali father-daughter duo must excruciatingly suffer to recover their own stolen jewellery from a local court; lorded over by a lawyer, who owns the judge as well.

RJ Balaji plays the villain-lawyer. Balaji is also writer-director of Karuppu - having offered himself the second-best role. He was in the theatre, when I watched the film. Audiences rightly went berserk, once he got on stage, at the interval.

The best way to gauge audience interest is, if they get engagingly quiet, after the initial euphoria of the film/star has been swiftly replaced with an actual story being told.

For the most part, fans at Sion-Moviemax did - seemingly touched by the earthy, everyman's ordeal. Sure, Karuppu is star swagger-central still, along with customary action blocks.

Suriya plays God. As in Lord Vettai Karuppusamy, brought to life. The genre is, technically, supernatural, with even Kantara thrown in, toward the end!

But Lord Karuppu must navigate the local court-room situation as a mere mortal, through honest means, limiting his own magical powers - that's the challenge! The point, being, even God can't save/fix this system!

Frankly, this is the kinda script that could be elevated to Munnabhai levels in the hands of, say, Abhijat Joshi-Rajkumar Hirani, reworking its successive drafts. Vijay played Aamir's role in the Tamil remake of Hirani's 3 Idiots (Nanban). I'm told, Suriya was the original choice.

But I watched Karuppu more for what it is - than what it could be. At some point, a character wonders why God doesn't come down to solve other problems. Good point.

Maybe God does answer our prayers - he says no! I can see why audiences said yes to this film, though.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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