8 Thottakal (8 bullets) - One among the many reasons for admiring this accidently stumbled upon flick would be the integrity of director Sri Ganesh in including a whole list of "filmography" titles in the end credits as his inspirations in making the movie - Akira Kurasova's Stray Dog(1949), Breaking Bad series, Badlapur, Wild Tales, Couple of Mysskin movies etc. . As an average viewer who would be so engrossed in this well-paced thriller, you wouldn't be thinking this as a plagiarized piece, but would surely connect the dots once you see this revelation at the end and subsequently the premises of movie inspired from the same.
Sathya, a honest but timid cop with a dark past accidentally loses his service pistol which was loaded with eight bullets. Before he could retrieve the pistol, it makes its way into the black market and gets sold off to a man named Moorthy, who uses it for a bank robbery. While Sathya desperately searches for his pistol, a series of murders start to happen by the same pistol. Rest of the movie is all about the twists, turns and narrations which culminates into a bloody emotional climax, largely unconventional for the supposedly thriller mould of this movie.
The movie would be remembered for M.S.Bhaskar, essentially reminisced for his on and off comedy roles , who gives an enactment of his lifetime as the antagonist/protagonist , the biggest beauty of the film which doesn't try to fit the characters into preconceived shells of virtue or vice. A good Tamil movie to watch after Dhruvangal 16, 8 Tottakal deserves serious appreciation for combining thriller and emotional elements most convincingly, the only bleak points being the under emoting lead actor Vetri and a couple of love songs squeezed in between at the most bizarre junctures.
