Actor Kamal Haasan Chooses Not To Apologise For His Remarks On Kannada; Won't Release ‘Thug Life
When Chakravarthi Rajagopalchari in 1950s had apologised for saying Kannada is evolved from Tamil, why can't Haasan, the Court had asked earlier Tamil movie Thug Life will not be released in Karnataka as part of its worldwide launch on June 5, as actor Kamal Haasan chose not to tender an apology for his statement that 'Kannada is born out of Tamil' despite a suggestion made in this regard by the High Court of Karnataka to put an end to the controversy. n18oc_indiaNews18 Mobile App - https://onelink.to/desc-youtube
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The Hindu
30 minutes ago
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‘Thug Life' movie review: Kamal Haasan's fiery performance aside, Mani Ratnam's gangster drama shoots blanks
When an auteur like Mani Ratnam returns to a genre he is known for, with a maverick multihyphenate like Kamal Haasan, the expectations are naturally high; the worst result one could anticipate is a film that works but doesn't necessarily redefine the genre. Seldom would you expect a Thug Life, which bafflingly feels like a Mani Ratnam-ish film that gave in to the mainstream compulsion of being a modern-day Tamil potboiler. A 163-minute chronicle of an elderly gangster's tryst with love, destiny, guilt and death, Thug Life is a gangster crime drama with stretches so generic and cold that you might wonder if it was really the filmmaker at the helm. Given his oft-discussed distinct filmmaking style, you can't help but look out for a certain Mani Ratnam-esque quality in the mise-en-scène, like the shots of a young boy running into a framed entrance of a chawl, and later, standing there helplessly, drowned in grief, in the initial portions of the film. The sheer promise that shone through the first twenty minutes or so is hard even to reminisce. We begin in 1994, in a scene of gorgeous monochrome. A police shootout ensues at a chawl in Old Delhi, where wanted gangster Rangaraya Sakthivel (a de-aged Kamal) and his chieftains — Manickam (Nasser), Pathrose (Joju George), Anburaj (Bagavathi Perumal) and co — have gathered. In a tragic turn of events, one of Sakthivel's men inadvertently kills a newspaper vendor (Elango Kumaravel), leaving his two children orphaned. Gutted by his death, Sakthivel adopts his son, Amar, and promises to find his sister, Chandra, who went missing in the commotion that followed the episode. With AR Rahman punctuating the enchanting 'Anju Vanna Poove' score with silences, the sequence tugs at your heartstrings. This is where the heart of this narrative resides, and this is the pulse of narration you expect from Mani Ratnam's school of filmmaking. This is also what you hold onto as scenes move on to depict the life of Sakthivel from 2016 onwards — his tender moments with his wife Jeeva (Abhirami); his lust for his mistress Indrani (an underutilised Trisha); the warmth he shows Amar (a restrained Silambarasan TR); his enmity with his nemesis Sadhanand and the trouble it is sprouting in the form of Sadhanand's revenge-thirsty brother-in-law Deepak (Ali Fazal); and a silent thirst for power that is growing among his men. Unfortunately, Thug Life winds its way hastily, unanchored to that potent crux. Thug Life (Tamil) Director: Mani Ratnam Cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, Trisha, Abhirami Runtime: 165 minutes Storyline: An ageing gangster has to protect his family when a power struggle tears through his clan, and enemies return seeking vengeance The film shares at least six parallels with Kamal and Mani's iconic 1987 gangster crime drama Nayakan — like a daughter-figure's moral compass, a police officer's quest to clean the city and his marital life, a grandson named after Sakthivel Naicker, and a son adopted from the weight of a sin — and it only makes the flaws more apparent in the modern take on the genre. Both films explore themes of guilt, morality and destiny, but Thug Life doesn't bother itself with selling the emotional beats of the story. It seems like the urge to cater to modern, impatient audiences is not to be burdened by human drama and building strong characters with clear interpersonal dynamics, but rather make grand strokes with the action sequences. Perhaps this is also why letting the dialogue convey necessary backstories, like Sakthivel's equation with Manickam, comes across as weak and uneven; you must necessarily recollect the few rushed-through moments between Manickam and Amar to get a comprehensive understanding of the former's dynamics with the latter and Sakthivel. You wonder why the scene of how Sakthi met Indrani wasn't shrunk into a dialogue as well. Fascinatingly, the same film shows what could have been had there been more space to make these emotional beats felt. Jeeva's arc with Sakthi gets superbly fleshed out; again, dialogue tells you how they met, the unspoken bond they share ('Kuthi pesra na azhugaya ulla vechikutu irukka nu artham,' he tells her at one moment), and you get set-ups with effective pay-offs, like a line she utters during a tiff. This is a film that hardly takes a moment to breathe, and any scope for such drama is traded for pulsating action set pieces. Like a certain car chase scene that, while it may prove necessary for the larger scheme of things, overstays its welcome. This inclination towards making the film action-heavy is why a fight scene in which Sakthivel powers through a potent sedative does nothing except remind you of another such fight scene in Vikram, where Kamal's character had to fight henchmen without making a noise. Beyond this, it also doesn't help that the film fails to add more to its archaic fight-for-the-throne conflict at the centre of the film. Subplots and layers seem added purely for convenience, like a character that returns in the climax to serve a meagre purpose. You also feel bad for Silambarasan since Amar never comes into his own or grows beyond what the plot requires him to do. A lion's share of the screen space is given to Kamal, and the veteran aces his role as an ageing man fighting the God of Death — be it in the more tender moments like the aforementioned scene with Abhirami, or the many face-offs he has on rooftops and cliffs. But is he really feeling the weight of his actions or questioning his morality as the Sakthivel Naicker we once knew? The verdict is still out. As has been the case with many recent Mani Ratnam films, songs feature sparingly and yet it does somehow feel like it is Rahman who is doing all the heavy lifting in selling the emotions. Touted as one of the biggest Tamil films of the year, Thug Life boasts exquisite production design and striking cinematography. However, despite a master filmmaker at the helm, all the star power in its arsenal and the right ingredients to make a heady modern gangster drama, it makes you grope in the dark for its beating heart. Thug Life is currently running in theatres
Mint
42 minutes ago
- Mint
‘Thug Life' review: Mani Ratnam's gangster film shoots a bit too straight
What a wonderful world it would be if Tamil and Telugu commercial directors could apply their considerable talents to telling concise, coherent stories. The bloat is out of control. I'm not just talking about the dozen retrofitted plots of Kalki 2898 AD or the maddening detours of Pushpa 2. Even smart, funny films like Jigarthanda DoubleX stretch their material unduly. I admit this isn't a widely held opinion. Audiences today clearly like the mess. As luck would have it, the wrong director decided to simplify. Thug Life is Mani Ratnam at his most basic. This isn't to say he's made a bad film—it's just not the film you'd expect Ratnam, comfortably established as the preeminent popular director of the past 40 years, to make at 69. In his previous two films, Ponniyin Selvan: I and its sequel, he created a rich, teeming world and asked audiences to keep up. No one will have any problem following Thug Life, a remarkably linear tale for an industry that loves flashbacks and wrong-footing the viewer. Thug Life reunites Ratnam with Kamal Haasan for the first time since Nayakan, a landmark 1987 Tamil gangster film. In the early black-and-white scenes, a clean-shaven Haasan might remind viewers of Velu Naicker, as will the sight of a young boy at his father's funeral. The man died in a shootout between the police and gangster Rangaraaya Sakthivel (Haasan). The don adopts the boy—who doesn't know how his father was killed or that his sister, Chandra, is alive. In time, Amar (Silambarasan) rises to second-in-command in Sakthivel's cartel, the dealings of which are left vague, and which operates out of an even vaguer Delhi. From the start, co-writers Ratnam and Haasan seed the idea that Amar, for all his loyalty to his quasi-father, can be swayed by voices in his ear, and that Sakthivel has plenty of the paranoia that must come with being a gangster. The first half is a laser-focused and very enjoyable march towards their split. There are small pleasures (Joju George as wrecking machine, the Simla Agreement line) and more elaborate ones (Silambarasan's entry scene in the desert, the ebullience of the 'Jinguchaa' choreography). We see Sakthivel at peace—dallying with his mistress, Indrani (Trisha Krishnan), worrying about his daughter—and at war, parrying attacks by rival don Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar). For all the frenetic energy on display, there's a sense that the real business can only start once he's betrayed. It's anyone's guess if Thug Life is more a Haasan or Ratnam joint, or whether they were in total agreement on the direction the film would take. One thing is clear, though. Ratnam wants to make a film that will play: not a masterpiece but a hit. You can sense it in the frequency of set pieces, the straightforwardness of the narrative, and the absence of any political or cultural commentary. There's no interrogation of the modern gangster film. There is certainly a depth of emotion, but the storytelling is shallow. The desire to put aside shading in favour of success also seems to have guided the third grizzled head behind Thug Life. I can't think of another film in some time where A.R. Rahman has been this focused on delivering hits. Paal Dabba's 'O Maara' is a blast, but on the whole it's a solid rather than standout soundtrack. Save for one song—the soaring 'Vinveli Nayaga', with its '80s-pop propulsion and orchestral swoops. I was hoping it would play over a big climactic showdown, but end credits turned out to be the proper place—there's nothing in the film to match its power. Ratnam doesn't quite fit in with today's action cinema. He can still put together a great sequence if it doesn't involve much fighting or stunt work—the foiled assassination attempt in PS-II is exquisite. But filming combat isn't his strong suit, and having to work around the limitations of a 70-year-old star makes it worse. Anbariv are excellent action directors, but Haasan isn't at all convincing as an indestructible object (one punch from George would knock him into next week) and none of the fights are memorable. That they still broadly work is a credit to editor A. Sreekar Prasad, who continues his outstanding work on Ponniyin Selvan. At least Haasan isn't too old to act his way out of trouble. Faced with betrayal, he's left without words, only managing a series of guttural sounds—a wheeze that turns to a growl and then a laugh. As the film goes on, Ratnam increasingly catches him in closeup, his eyes shining with pain and acceptance of his mortality. It's good he's on form because Silambarasan becomes less interesting after the split and Indrani is a disaster, a perpetual victim played nervously by Krishnan. It's tempting to think of this film as Ratnam's Ran, a master returning to the genre he helped define. But the comparison doesn't hold—Ran is richer, more ambitious and resonant. Nevertheless, Kurosawa does seem to be on Ratnam's mind. The opening of the film is a panoramic shot straight out of the Japanese director's playbook: Haasan with ponytail and flowing beard, standing in a field, green stalks waving, intoning some nonsense about being a yakuza. And the final shot of farmers happily harvesting rice is, of course, the ending to Seven Samurai. Thug Life, with its world-weary hero, feels like farewell, but hopefully isn't. Kurosawa made his last film at 83. Maybe Ratnam's Ran is yet to come.
