Kamal Haasan & Mani Ratnam's Thug Life Is A Head-Scratcher

Thug Life: A Strange, Lifeless Film From Mani Ratnam & Kamal Haasan

Thug Life is a true curveball not because it is indecipherable or inscrutable, but because it has no vision and is so stale that even mediocre directors would think twice before taking on such a script, writes Aditya Shrikrishna .

IT IS NOT PRUDENT to use business terms for art but as this concerns mainstream commercial cinema anyway, here we are. Usually, a Mani Ratnam film promises minimum guarantee. No matter what the film has in store — it works, meanders, dips or is politically dubious — there is always something cinematic, something inspired scattered here and there. Something you can take home, something you can watch in isolation years later. A shot, a stray scene or line or exchange that we can search on YouTube long after the release of the film. Kadal has some exquisite kinetic shotmaking. Guru is magical in some of its interpersonal dynamics. Thiruda Thiruda, for all its vacuousness, is a great ride and rarely a slog. Kaatru Veliyidai at its core has a wonderful premise that is lifelike and probed with intent even if timidly. So far Chekka Chivantha Vaanam was that odd one out with hardly a Mani Ratnam stamp. But here we are: as celebrated as Nayakan is and will remain forever, Mani Ratnam’s weakest film, for now, is his second collaboration with Kamal Haasan — Thug Life .

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It is hard to make out what interested Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam in this head scratcher of a film. A true curveball not because the film is indecipherable or inscrutable but because it has no vision and is so stale that even mediocre directors would think twice before taking on such a script. Rangaraya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) and his elder brother Manickam (Nasser) run a mafia in New Delhi; the film doesn’t bother with details of what it is or how it is run apart from a stray mention of “real estate”. First strike, we have no idea what they do. Amaran (Silambarasan TR) entered their life as a child when his father, a newspaper delivery man, was gunned down by the gang in a police shootout. Sakthivel believes death is always at his door and Amaran’s is a life that gave him a second chance. The exposition in this establishing scene and in Amaran’s adult life goes so hard that there is no emotional dynamic between the adoptive siblings. Strike two. The seed for latent animus between Amaran and Sakthivel is so weak, a moment of doubt constructed like a drizzle instead of a thunderstorm, that it doesn’t even register. Strike three. This from the two men who gave us horrifying foundations of a gangster in Nayakan , a child haunted by authority and death, penury and oppression.

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What follows is the most predictable plot mechanics for a nameless gangster saga. Often, predictable stories or genre conventions dictating passage is not surprising and sometimes even welcome. In Thug Life , the scenes lack rhythm, the dialogues lack a certain cachet and everything feels flat. There is a weak din in this film throughout that keeps calling out, that shakes the very core of the scene as if to suggest that this isn’t working. The incoherence is palpable and if we as an audience could interpret it, it is a shame that these seasoned artists and technicians willingly let us into it. There is a moment or two that sparks some life mostly thanks to the way Sakthivel is written, and Haasan plays it like how he would behave if he had been a real-life gangster. If there is a wisecrack during dealmaking to Amaran here, then there is a self-aware, self-deprecating quip to his paramour Indrani (Trisha) there. Even his henchmen can do comedy, like Joju George’s Pathrose gently suggesting not to behave hostilely during a happy event like a wedding or Manickam commenting about his younger brother’s nature. This humor is what keeps the first half going, Sakthivel as a weary, aged zinger wielding gangster. The Pammal K Sambandham inside him is alive and well and maybe, just maybe he should consider doing comedies again.

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The images of Thug Life hardly justify the names behind them: Ratnam, Ravi K Chandran behind the camera, and Sreekar Prasad as editor. For a major scene before the intermission, it is apparent that there was heavy usage of green screen. The frames look plastic, the background washed out and the actors unreal. With names like Nasser and Kamal in front, this comes across as a disservice to the medium as well as the fans. The film only progressively becomes worse, as from a weary, aged Sakthivel, an even wearier, older Sakthivel emerges to exact revenge. The action scenes are devoid of context; Sakthivel seemingly going on an assassination spree with no clear plan or method. The film loses whatever spatial specificity it has. While everything was set in New Delhi in the first half, the film jumps around Goa and Thiruchendur with saturated images and scenes that either don’t breathe at all or extend long enough to turn into dead air. Then there are underdeveloped characters like Ashok Selvan’s Royappa with his own history. Mani Ratnam, once known for relationship interplay and reciprocity (an always enjoyable tug of war), is a missing person in Thug Life . The film simply had no place for an angle between Indrani and Amaran and yet it goes there. Royappa and his team appear and disappear out of their own volition, and there is Ali Fazal who wants to remind us that he too is in this film.

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The angle of Amaran’s long lost sister is the only vaguely compelling thread that the makers eschew for about two hours and thankfully return to in the last few minutes. By then it is too late. By then, we are left wondering who really made this film. By then, the film has lost all sense of space, any temporal clarity or outline of its characters. Did Kamal really write this script? Did Mani Ratnam really direct this film? Did he really have AR Rahman (whose background score is a rambling mess despite individual brilliance in the songs) compose a pulsating cry for crusade like ‘ Vinveli Nayaga ’ and fail to use it at all? Blasphemy!

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