DSP begins with the introduction of a few cops before we meet Vasco da Gama, played by Vijay Sethupathi. He then introduces the audience to his family in Dindigul, a town in south Tamil Nadu. Vasco da Gama is the obedient son of a flower seller and is in search of a government job. During his job hunt, he comes across ‘Muttai’ Ravi (Prabhakar), the henchman of the local MLA, and locks horns with him. Eventually, Vasco da Gama becomes a cop and returns to his village to take on Ravi. What happens next forms the rest of the story.
DSP is the typical honest cop V/s politician drama which you may have seen several times in the past. Director Ponram does not try to do anything different with DSP. The introduction of Sethupathi as Vasco da Gama did raise expectations, but his character fails to impress as the film unfolds. His romantic scenes with Annapoorni (Anukreethy Vas) are devoid of fun. The character of Annapoorni is uninteresting except in a few comedy scenes when she breaks a beer bottle and when she packs sweets and snacks for the hero.
There are of course a few interesting elements like when Vasco da Gama asks his father, “What if the government sells the organisation I am part of to the private?” Ponram takes a very long time to establish the plot and then the protagonist. By then it is the intermission, and what follows is a cat-and-mouse game between the hero and the villain. Prabhakar's Ravi is the typical villain that you see in Tamil movies and the actor is convincing enough.
The cinematography, editing, and screenplay remind you of many of the old Tamil movies which have the cat-and-mouse game between the hero and the villain as the central plot.
Sethupathi is a crowd-puller who wins the audience with his casual mannerisms and quirky dialogues. In DSP too, Sethupathi does have all these, but fails to impress the audience because of a commonplace plot.
DSP cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Anu Keerthi, Prabhakar, Ilavaraasi
DSP director: Ponram
DSP rating: 2/5
