Thug Life Movie Review: Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam's ‘game of thrones' is a cinematic endurance test

Indian Express

2 days ago

Thug Life Movie Review & Rating: 'You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,' Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight) warned the world, particularly those so-called saviours who never seem to vacate the throne, nor evolve enough to remain worthy of it over time. However, not everyone seems to have received the memo or grasped the implications of that line. Illustrating its meaning loud and clear, Mani Ratnam has delivered what is arguably his weakest film to date, the Kamal Haasan-starrer Thug Life. Worse still, the only way one could even identify it as a Mani Ratnam film is the grandiosity of its visuals and the occasional brilliance of its long shots. If not for these, Thug Life would have felt like an unending gangster drama, crafted by an overambitious filmmaker (anyone, really) whose only asset was ambition and nothing more.
After opening with a visually well-crafted scene that introduces Rangaraya Sakthivel's (Kamal Haasan) lifelong 'tryst' with death, dating back to the moment of his birth, Thug Life cuts to a flashback set in Old Delhi, 1994. A gangster based in the capital, Sakthivel is steadily expanding his horizons and is set to dethrone his supposed crime guru Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar). Following a tense meeting in an old residential building occupied by tens of middle-class families, Sadanand snitches on Sakthivel and his gang to the police, who quickly surround the area. As a shootout ensues, Sakthivel, his elder brother Manickam (Nassar) and others attempt to flee. Amid the chaos, Sakthivel finds a young boy, Amaran, orphaned in the crossfire. Guilt-ridden, he adopts the boy and raises him as his own brother/son/protégé.
Cut to 2016: Sakthivel remains a powerful force, and Amaran (Silambarasan, with one of his career-worst intros) is now his trusted lieutenant. When Sakthivel is imprisoned for murder, he entrusts his empire and the safety of his wife Jeeva (Abhirami) and daughter Mangai (Sanjana Krishnamoorthy) to Amaran. Though this irks Manickam and others in the gang, they are powerless to object. Meanwhile, Amaran rises. Once he returns, Sakthivel realises the power dynamics have shifted and that Amaran is now the kingpin. Seeking to gain control, Manickam schemes with other like-minded gang members and manages to poison Amaran's mind too. Together, they decide to eliminate Sakthivel. But can they?
Thug Life is essentially a game of thrones; a battle for all-consuming power. While this core idea has been adapted in countless forms over the centuries, with traces even in ancient epics, it still hasn't lost its appeal. Particularly because it exposes the moral grey in people who believe that 'all is fair in war (and love).' However, the Mani Ratnam directorial is plagued by extremely subpar writing that not only fails to make the most of its premise but also falls short in delivering an engaging experience. Filled with uninspired and undercooked moments that lead nowhere, Thug Life ends up as a cinematic endurance test.
Although the film opens with a visual and narrative metaphor that captures the essence of Thug Life, it soon falters. While the black-and-white shootout sequence that follows had the potential to serve as a microcosm of the film, blending action and drama, it ultimately acts as a warning sign of what's to come: unimpressive action and unimpactful drama.
We're soon introduced to a slew of characters who dominate much of the screentime, yet none of them leave a lasting impression due to weak development and even weaker character arcs. Take Sakthivel himself, for instance. Though he's introduced as a 'criminal, thug, Yakuza' with a humane side and relatable vulnerabilities, the film never gives us impactful moments to fully grasp or feel any of these facets. Instead, Thug Life drifts from one half-cooked scene to another, never offering the audience enough substance to connect with him. At the same time, Amaran, intended to be a layered character who goes through significant emotional dilemmas and setbacks, also suffers from shallow writing. His arc is riddled with glaring gaps, the result of a script that prioritises the unnecessary over the meaningful.
Unlike Nayakan, where Sakthivel 'Velu' Nayakkar (Kamal) assumed a lone-wolf persona, Thug Life unfolds through bonds, both familial and chosen. Yet even these dynamics remain underexplored, mainly due to poor characterisation. Though Mani and Kamal, credited as screenwriters, attempt to bridge the gaps through 'heavy' (read as, shoddy) and long dialogues, the substandard quality of the writing prevents the film from establishing the bonds, particularly the emotional lock between Sakthivel and Amaran.
Despite the friction between them being crucial to the later part of the narrative, Mani Ratnam never manages to build this dynamic cohesively, rendering even their eventual tension flat and uninspiring. In fact, the confrontation and subsequent fight scene between Sakthivel and his friend-turned-foe Pathros (Joju George) is far more gripping and exhilarating than the cumulative impact of all the other moments in the film.
Also, how long will filmmakers keep thinking that a hero falling off a cliff is still a good narrative device? Even though Amaran and the others are gangsters, wouldn't they have watched some movies to have the basic common sense to check for Sakthivel's body and make sure that the dude is actually dead before starting to celebrate? Seriously.
While Thug Life tries, again, only through dialogues, to establish that Sakthivel loves his wife Jeeva, it fails to convincingly convey the depth of that love, which is supposedly the motivation for his dramatic return from the dead. Strangely enough, Sakthivel is also shown to have a mistress, Indrani (Trisha Krishnan), for whom he supposedly harbours quite some affection. Yet this relationship, too, is never developed beyond superficial physicality. Instead of meaningful moments that illuminate their bond (if any exists), we're left with the occasional make-out scenes. In fact, throughout the movie, Mani and Kamal have bluntly attempted to establish emotional depth through forced dialogues, rather than letting these relationships unfold organically.
If the male characters are underwritten, the women fare even worse. Their presence, particularly in the cases of Jeeva and Indrani, is largely limited to being felt up by Sakthivel. And the other few women, well, they don't matter even that much to the makers. They contribute little to nothing of substance to the narrative. While the film briefly hints at Amaran's interest in Indrani and later shows him forcibly taking her away after dethroning Sakthivel, this track is clumsily and carelessly handled. 'You turned the beast in me into a human being,' he tells her towards the end. But how? Mani and Kamal leave it to the already-confused and tired audience to fill in the blanks.
Interestingly, while Rangaraya Sakthivel is stripped of the Nayakkar surname (as seen in the initial promos), Mani and Kamal still ensure that the character's dominant caste identity is not invisibilised. This is underscored in a moment when Mangai expresses to Amaran her fear that her father might not approve of her romantic relationship due to caste differences.
As the narrative moves along one trajectory, Kamal Haasan's performance seems to run on an entirely different track, rarely intersecting. There are multiple instances in Thug Life where it feels like Kamal is unsure of which film he's in, as his performance is out of sync with the tone of the movie. While Kamal resorts to his typical theatrics, the rest of the cast — though none of them, including Silambarasan, did anything exceptional — at least attempt to stay true to the film's mood. The result is a visible gap between Kamal's performance and those of his co-stars.
Thug Life, in a way, feels like a car ride that Mani Ratnam, Kamal Haasan, AR Rahman and cinematographer Ravi K Chandran embarked upon. But midway through, everyone, including Mani at the wheel, somehow dozed off, leaving Ravi, from the back seat, to somehow take over and steer the vehicle to safety before it crashed. From start to finish, Ravi does an exceptional job with the visuals, richly capturing the ethos of the city and the characters. Sreekar Prasad's editing, while salvaging these visuals to a great extent, never manages to rescue the film from its dull and disjointed storytelling.
Another major disappointment in Thug Life is Rahman's music, especially the jarring and often senseless background score. At several points, the BGM feels so tonally off that it makes the viewers feel like they are watching a gangster spoof. While 'Vinveli Nayaga' is good in its entirety, its fragmented odd placements in various parts of the film end up detracting from the overall experience. If there's anything as bad as AR Rahman's music on the technical front, it's Anbariv's action choreography.
In short, Thug Life is a lot like watching a never-ending Kamal Haasan interview, where he keeps delivering long-winded lectures on things he already knows, without ever bothering to listen to the actual question.
Thug Life movie cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Joju George
Thug Life movie director: Mani Ratnam
Thug Life movie rating: 1.5 stars
Anandu Suresh is a Senior sub-editor at Indian Express Online. He specialises in Malayalam cinema, but doesn't limit himself to it and explores various aspects of the art form. He also pens a column titled Cinema Anatomy, where he delves extensively into the diverse layers and dimensions of cinema, aiming to uncover deeper meanings and foster continuous discourse. Anandu previously worked with The New Indian Express' news desk in Hyderabad, Telangana. You can follow him on Twitter @anandu_suresh_ and write (or send movie recommendations) to him at [e-mail]. ... Read More