The long-awaited reunion of cinema giants Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam finally releases and comes after a feeling of great expectation and bittersweet emotions. Starring in a stylized gangster scenario that covers Delhi and Tamil Nadu, Thug Life is a tale of a mighty don named Rangaraaya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) whose name is a byword for the streets of power and gore. Following decades out of a genre that is accountable for much of their legendary status, Mani Ratnam attempts to put his old emotional weight into a context in which gangster format has been tested, revisited, and deconstructed time and time again.
The film begins well. It’s tightly packed with drama, background, and a feeling of emotional involvement between Sakthivel and Amar, played by Silambarasan (STR), who plays a lovable and passionate protege. Sakthivel and Amar’s mentor-disciple relationship is the emotional heart of the film and does well on the whole. STR offers us one of his most mature performances to date — fierce, expressive, and terrifically deep. Kamal Haasan, of course, exudes screen presence. His ability to become silent, angry, and wise in a glance cannot be replicated and this role offers him moments of both philosophical calm and fragility. But while as compelling as these performances are, they always do feel like part of a bigger story that cannot quite gel.
Thug Life is stunning to look at. There’s a lesson in moody lighting and kinetic framing in Ravi K Chandran’s camera work. From foggy night shots to darkly lit altercations, there’s a painterly feel to each image as a moving painting. Production values are high-end, making life as a gangster seem almost legendary. A perfect counterpoint is A.R. Rahman’s score, which alternates between soulful background cues and high-octane numbers. Even though numbers like “Jinguchaa” accelerate the pace tremendously, there are times when the score goes into “too loud” zones or seems out of sync with a scene’s emotional beat. Rahman’s background score, however, rescues many moments that sizzle on the writing front.
Where Thug Life disappoints most is in its second half. Promising a heart-shattering explosion after all its build-up, what you instead end up getting is a gradual descent into predictable and patchy-paced ground. Intriguingly introduced characters are shelved, and emotional arcs that would have reached a crescendo are rushed or merely left unfinished. Trisha, in particular, is not used enough. While her on-screen presence is elegant, her own characterization is one-note and a form of emotional and aesthetic anchor, more than a dynamic component of story. Abhirami’s part is a juicier one and she acts well, especially in emotional moments, and provides some semblance of what could have been had writers been more considerate when penning their main protagonists.
The dialogues are smooth and occasionally lyrical like in Mani Ratnam‘s earlier films. In a couple of instances, however, the writing descends into excessive philosophical musings and forgets to move the story onward. There are just so many characters and storylines going on in the screenplay — rival gangs, betrayal between brothers, flashbacks, and politics — and this dilutes the emotional punch. If the film had been leaner and concentrated on its subject of power, loyalty, and betrayal between Sakthivel and Amar, then a bigger impact would have been made.
That’s all well and good, though, because Thug Life is no bad film — though not quite as resounding a comeback as everyone had hoped. It’s sleek, tense at times, and stylishly ambitious. It retains Kamal Haasan’s immortal charisma and Mani Ratnam’s sense of style. It retains, as well, that pressure of expectation and that risk of unleashing a centuries’ old story into a film world already beyond its cliches.
Verdict
Thug Life is a competent gangster film that generates moments of brilliance but never attains greatness. It is viewable on its own merits for its acting, visuals, and flashes of emotional depth — especially if you’re a Kamal or STR fan boy — but don’t enter on the assumption that it’s going to resuscitate a genre or match a personal best like Nayagan or Thalapathi by Mani Ratnam.