Arguably the most disappointing film in Mani Ratnam’s career. Kamal Haasan (70) needs to move away from playing clichéd, larger-than-life roles. Ali Fazal impresses in his brief cameo.
Rating: ⭐️💫 (1.5 / 5)
By Mayur Lookhar
Back in 1987, Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam teamed up to create the unforgettable gangster drama Nayakan—loosely inspired by The Godfather but more rooted in the story of gangster Varadarajan. Surprisingly, they never worked together again after that. Ratnam had long planned to make Ponniyin Selvan with Haasan, but it never happened. Ratnam eventually made two Ponniyin Selvan films without Haasan. Now, 38 years later, the duo has finally reunited on screen with Thug Life, another gangster drama.
Haasan is also the co-writer. He’s given the same name, Sakthivel, but Thug Life is set in a different era and city – Delhi.
Story
In 1994, Rangaraaya Sakthivel Naicker (Haasan) reluctantly agrees to meet a rival, Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar), in Delhi at his brother’s request. As expected, it’s a trap—police arrive to arrest Sakthivel and his gang. A young boy and his sister, who were delivering newspapers. get caught in the chaos. (Presuming such meets wouldn’t take place early, it’s odd to have newspaper delivery guys around at that time). Their father is killed, and the little girl, Chandra, disappears without a trace. Sakthivel uses the boy as a shield to escape but soon takes him in and raises him as his own. Years later, Amaran (T. Silambarasan, aka Simbu) becomes Sakthivel’s most trusted right-hand man.
In a later scene, Sakthivel cautions Amaran that Delhi has been the power center for ages, and therefore, this region is cursed and prone to political tussles. The lust for power is so strong that it often turns people against each other.
Screenplay & Direction
Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan are right about Delhi, but they seem to forget that their Tamil characters are in Delhi because of their political triumphs in Tamil Nadu. Surely, these ambitious characters weren’t saints while climbing the political ladder back home, which has its own share of crime and power struggles.
There’s a deliberate attempt to evoke Nayakan nostalgia, but Ratnam and Haasan end up delivering a 165-minute, exhausting, clichéd, and dull crime drama. The opening scene from 1994, shot in monochrome, shows promise—but as color hits the screen to mark the present day, so does the boredom. The first half drags, and while there’s hope for a gripping second-half noir, that turns out to be a false promise. The painfully poor latter half makes you wish time would speed up just to end the ordeal.
Acting
There’s no denying Kamal Haasan’s childlike passion for cinema, but even legends can’t outrun age. Larger-than-life roles are fine, but at 70, they don’t quite land—even with his loyal fans. As tension builds, Sakthivel turns grumpy and hard to watch—not just for the characters around him, but for the audience too. Haasan’s phoenix-like Sakthivel starts to resemble his nearly immortal Senapathy from Indian. These may be grandfatherly characters, but their actions feel more like those of a rebellious teenager. At this point in his career, Haasan seems to have overestimated his ability to make these roles believable.
The trailer drew criticism, especially for showing a 70-year-old man flirting with a much younger actress like Trisha Krishnan. Sure, gangsters aren’t known for being loyal husbands, but it’s bizarre to see a man who champions women’s education and careers at home, yet has no issue engaging in what is essentially a sexual relationship with Indrani (Krishnan). But the makers prefer to call it a sugar daddy.
Abhirami, who is just a year younger than Krishnan, is stuck playing Haasan’s wife. To her credit, she at least tries to look the part of a 70-year-old’s spouse. You can’t help but feel for poor Jeeva, who has to endure such a man—despite him proudly claiming she’s his one and only true love.
Simbu is well-known in the South, and this is the first time this reviewer is seeing him in action. He starts strong but gets bogged down by the weak script. Mahesh Manjrekar does a good job in his first film with Mani Ratnam. Ali Fazal shines too, making the most of his cameo role as Deepak, Sadanand’s older son.
Music / Technical aspects
A.R. Rahman’s score for Ponniyin Selvan—both in the original Tamil and dubbed Hindi—was widely appreciated, but the one in Thug Life hardly makes an impression. Maybe the original Tamil music might be more appealing.
A Mani Ratnam film is naturally high on technical expertise, with top-notch cinematography, background music, and production design. But without a gripping story and inspiring performances, it all feels hollow.
Final verdict
During the promotions, Mani Ratnam shared that he and Kamal Haasan hadn’t worked together in years simply because they never found the right script. Now, with both in the twilight of their careers, Thug Life feels less like a natural reunion and more like a forced collaboration. It ends up being, without question, the most disappointing film of Ratnam’s career.
Haasan often says he’ll keep doing cinema until his last breath. In Thug Life he plays Sakthivel—a gangster who seems almost immortal, like a yakuza who’s cheated death too many times. But maybe it’s time for the Ulaganayagan (Universal Star) to reinvent and move on from these over-the-top roles. Even his most loyal fans aren’t buying it anymore. In the end, it’s the audience that ends up feeling cheated.
Watch the video review below.