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'Thug Life' Movie Review: This Mani Ratnam-Kamal Haasan Drama Is Conceptually Fascinating, Emotionally Distant
'Thug Life,' which is so dense on a conceptual level, becomes especially alienating as an action film about succession among gangsters.
Director: Mani Ratnam
Writer: Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam
Cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, Trisha, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Joju George, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Nassar, Mahesh Manjrekar
Language: Tamil
When Mani Ratnam got together with Kamal Haasan for Nayakan more than 38 years ago, we got a “Neenga nallavara, kettarava? (are you a good man or an evil man?)” conflict that would go on to dominate all of Tamil cinema for years to come. In their reunion, we get the nallavara, kettavara conflict at the core of it, but over here, in Thug Life, it isn’t limited just to Haasan’s character, Sakthivel Rangarayar. It extends to Amaran as well, played by Silambarasan TR.
Mani Ratnam has already toyed with the concept of duality in his earlier films Iruvar (1997), Raavanan (2010) and more recently, Kadal (2013). And just like in those films, there is no easy or obvious answer as we try to analyse whether either Amaran or Sakthivel is good or evil.
On the surface level, it’s a movie that is particularly more loyal to Sakthivel. We see him as this man who has this roaring affair, but we also see another side that makes him a doting husband. On one hand, we see him call Amaran his adopted son, but he’s quick to doubt his intentions the very first time he feels like Amaran has left his side. And when the daughter he loves dearly says she’s in love with his colleague’s son, she’s afraid if caste will be reason enough for Sakthivel to go against her. So, when Sakthivel repeatedly claims that he did not kill a very important character, we are trained not to believe what he’s saying. He could be lying for all you may know.
Sakthivel is a fascinating character, a tragic figure who probably bears a resemblance to Ashwatthama from the Mahabharata. Right from the start of his story, we’re told that his survival came at the cost of his mother’s death. Years later, it’s not Sakthivel who saves the life of a young boy during a police raid. It’s the boy who ends up saving him. Did Sakthivel even care for this boy, or was he simply a life jacket to him?
Even in an instance when people are trying to kill Sakthivel, he realises that his yet-to-be-born grandson has died, almost at the exact moment when he was meant to die. In his own words, death is as good as a lifelong companion to Sakthivel, perhaps his only friend. And like Ashwatthama, immortality isn’t as much a boon for Sakthivel as it is a curse. Imagine having to see death from up close so many times that you wonder why you’ve been spared for so long. In a life of crime, staying alive becomes his biggest punishment.
This is also why a film like Thug Life, which is so dense on a conceptual level, can become especially alienating as an action film about succession among gangsters. We find ourselves struggling to find emotional hooks with any character in the film, and we engage only at an abstract level. So, when the film moves into the space of the adopted son taking on his father, we’re not wrong to expect a highly intense drama about how painful that must be for both of them. But with Thug Life, we’re only watching the proceedings from a safe distance, as though neither of them matters to us.
Again, on a conceptual level, imagine one of our finest directors like Mani Ratnam making a film with actors such as Haasan and Simbu —one that deals with the Oedipus Complex, with the son willing to kill his father, to be with his mother. But even this is explored only as one of the many deeper layers the film wants to get to, without giving it the time or the depth it takes for it to truly be about it.
Putting it simply, imagine how incredible it must have been to see a film in which both Sakthivel and Amaran realise how they have both been destined by death to be together, uniting them as many times as death separates them. But by this point, it’s a film that’s coming together better in the head than it is in the heart. You continue to feel this right through Thug Life, despite the great performances, despite AR Rahman’s experimental score and some of Ravi K Chandran’s stunning shots. It might have been disappointing given the expectations riding on a Mani Ratnam-Kamal Haasan collaboration, but it’s a film that requires a few more viewings to fully understand what we feel about it.