Thug Life Review: Kamal Haasan Commands An Uneven But Gripping Gangster Saga

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2 days ago

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After more than three decades, Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan reunite for Thug Life—a film that combines Shakespearean tragedy with modern gangster spectacle.
The first half of Thug Life has something that recent Tamil gangster dramas don't: drama. The film begins in 1995 in Old Delhi with a supposed peace talk between two gangs in a crowded and bustling old building. On one hand, we have Rangaraya Saktivel (Kamal Haasan) and his gang, on the other, Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar), who has set his enemies up. The police force close in and amidst all this tension, a father, his son, and daughter go about delivering dailies to each door. The exchanges between the characters are natural and subtle, and we get a smart, de-aged Kamal Haasan. He doesn't get a raging introduction scene. Anything and everything is for the scene and the tension, which ends in the poor father getting shot as collateral damage and Sakthivel walking away carrying the orphaned boy Amar (Silambarasan TR) as his 'shield' from the police bullets. This straightforward, simple, but effective storytelling makes the first half of Thug Life an engrossing watch, and it undoes everything it achieves in the second.
Amar, who grows up to become the loyal heir of Sakthivel, keeps searching for his sister Chandra, who went missing during the botched-up encounter. When Sakthivel's gang members become power-hungry, they turn Amar against the boss, fueling this long-forgotten tragedy. What follows is a bloody, Shakespearean betrayal, with Sakthivel fighting his way back to reclaim what he once ruled. As a story, Thug Life is a garden variety revenge drama. There's nothing unique or there's no twist that takes you by surprise. Yet, Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan have attempted to make this basic story into a character-driven film, where violence is not cathartic but painful. The structural problem with Thug Life is that it starts with the story of Amar, Sakthivel, and his promise to find Chandra. But we don't get to see or feel Chandra till the end. Instead, the film spent more time being a generic action drama.
What it needs is more interesting writing like its protagonist Kamal Haasan. In a drunken and envious stupor, Manicam (Nasser), the elder brother of Rengaraya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan), describes the latter as follows: 'My brother treats you to a delicious meal on a banana leaf with all the great food, but in the corner he leaves some sh**." The tasteless comment has some truth to it. Rengaraya Sakthivel is an ambiguous character. He is sharp but also rogue. He is a man who kills without flinching but champions women's education; he revels in caste pride yet is progressive enough to marry his daughter into another caste; he adores his wife but has a mistress—and calls his hypersexuality a disease. The pillar of Thug Life is this complex character and the ingenious acting of Kamal Haasan that brings him to life.
Kamal is in towering form. There's a stunning late-film sequence where Sakthivel, under heavy sedatives, is forced into combat. He fights, he smirks, he bleeds—and yet never fully wakes. It's Haasan telling us, with quiet swagger, that he can act circles around others in his sleep. For fans who've longed to see him sink his teeth into a meaty role, Thug Life delivers in spades. Silambarasan TR is equally compelling as Amar, bringing both heft and vulnerability to a role that could have easily been overshadowed by Haasan.
But the second half of Thug Life veers off course. The layered character drama gives way to conventional revenge tropes and uninspired action sequences. For a film that initially avoids clichés, it becomes disappointingly generic in its latter stages. Mani Ratnam, known for staging subtle yet rousing hero moments, resists such indulgences here—but the restraint doesn't always work in the film's favour. The film needed more bite both in terms of action sequences and emotional drama. The arc between Sakthivel and his wife Jeeva (Ambirami) also fails to land. Their dynamic, instead of adding depth, feels overwrought and inconsistent with the rest of Sakthivel's character.
Thug Life ends up becoming a film that is torn between telling two stories. One is the unkillable and morally ambiguous king who continues to defy death. This story of Rangaray Sakthivel is a stand-in or metaphor for Kamal Haasan himself and how the actor has stood the test of time. However, this is half-done as the film is also about Amar and his tragedy. The climax is supposed to complete the circle. Now, the 'shield' gets shielded but still, the arc isn't organic and the irony kind of gets lost in the immortality of Sakthivel.
While Thug Life may not be Nayakan, it never tries to be. What it does offer is a compelling drama anchored by a magnetic lead performance, intelligent writing in parts, and an exploration of power, loyalty, and loss. It stumbles in its second act, but Kamal's performance and Ratnam's streaks of brilliance make it worth the ride.
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