'Thug Life' full review: Kamal, STR hold the old fort with strong performances

Cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, Nasser, Joju George, Trisha Krishnan, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Vaiypuri, Chinni Jayanth, Bagavathi Perumal, Arjun Chidambaram, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy and Ali Fazal

Director: Mani Ratnam

Music director: AR Rahman

Rating- 2.5/5

Thug Life is Mani Ratnam’s next after the Ponniyin Selvan franchise and is headlined by Kamal Haasan. The names of these icons of Indian cinema coming together is all it takes for the global movie industry to turn around and take a look at what they have to offer. Their collaboration after 38 years meant that something bigger and better than their maiden collaboration Nayakan, a cult classic is brewing. A few days ago, Kamal in an interaction told us about his discussion with Mani Ratnam on how they decided that Thug Life should be anything but Nayakan. True—Thug Life isn’t by any means close to their 1987 film. But is it any better?

The story opens from Rangaraya Sakthivel Nayakar’s (Kamal Haasan) perspective, a Tamil gangster based in Delhi’s slums. The story travel’s back to mid 1990s where he is shown as a real estate kingpin and a gangster with Manickavel Nayakar (Nasser), Pathros (Joju George) and Anburaj (Bagavathi Perumal aka Bucks) as his henchmen entering a deal with head of rival gang Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar). Sadanand snitches them and police enter the building to catch Sakthivel and the gang red-handed. Things take a turn and the shootout ends up killing a newspaper seller. His children Amaran (Silambarasan) and daughter Chandra (Aishwarya Lekshmi) are separated during the shootout.

Sakthivel takes Amaran with him and manages to flee the scene. The story travels to 2016, where Sakthivel manages to build an empire. Meanwhile, Manickavel’s daughter commits suicide because of Sadanand’s nephew. Sakthi kills him and gets imprisoned but announces that Amaran will be incharge during his tenure in the prison. Hereon, each and every character gets established well. Though the story follows an age-old template of every gangster drama, the first half of Thug Life 'almost' looks like it with a decent screenplay and a story that is set for a banger of a film towards the interval. Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan’s versatility in delivering emotions take us closer to other characters in the film as well. Sometimes, you would wonder whether to put yourself in Sakthi’s shoes or in Amaran’s when it comes to understanding the emotions behind other characters. Nasser and Joju George too impress with each frame they appear in. So does Rahman’s music with Oh Maara and Sugar Baby.

However, the second half of Thug Life is nothing like the first and ends up becoming a mashup of Mani Ratnam's Chekka Chivantha Vaanam and Naayakan. The film disconnects itself from the emotional standpoint and slants more towards Sakthivel. This makes it tedious. The already predictable story falls flat and looks more like Mani Ratnam is doing away with each character to give Sakthivel more prominence. While the film begins with Amar and Chandra’s emotional knot, we don’t get to see it until the last scene, which is a huge let down. Though the story speaks about women’s education and men in women’s world, it hardly adds value to the screenplay in a film where every character has shades of grey.

One thing that is impressive throughout Thug Life is Ravi K Chander’s visuals. Surprise package of the film is Ashok Selvan as Joy Rayappa, who in fact has a few mass moments especially when sharing scenes with Kamal and STR. He has delivered a flawless performance.

A predictable plot with a weak story, this is an old wine in an old bottle-- rather a Mani Ratnam's cocktail from scenes of his previous works. The film falls flat and ends up being another passable film. More than any of us, it is Kamal and Mani Ratnam who should revisit Nayakan.