Dated, defunct and dismal. Three words that sum up the latest Mani Ratnam offering, Thug Life, a gangland war tale that revels in following templates and tropes galore while pretending to be ‘with-it’ fresh!
Instead of Mumbai’s Dharavi, the background now is New Delhi, so the film can also scour locations like Rajasthan, Nepal and Kailash Mansarovar besides far-off Goa as part of the gangland script. Wish they had lent inventiveness to that vital cinema entity instead of only the locations, as cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran is left bereft despite sterling work because his work goes waste in this mediocre exercise!
The film opens with Rangaraaya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) pondering on how he has been playing a one-upmanship game with Yama, the Lord of Death. Aged and wizened, he then goes on to say that he is still open to a confrontation with death, confident that he will win.
His story takes off in 1994 when he adopts a young kid, Amaran (Silambarasan as adult), whose father dies in the crossfire between Sakhthivel’s gang and that of rival Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar) and the cops. Amaran’s presence as a kid in his arms prevents a cop from firing at him and so, Sakthivel and his elder brother, Manickam (Nassar) raise him as their own brother. Amaran, when a kid, was separated from his sister, Chandra (Aishwarya Lekshmi as adult) and misses her, even as Sakthivel has promised to find her! Years pass.
Sakthivel is married to Jeeva (Abhirami) and they have a daughter, Mangai (Sanjana Krishnamoorthy). Sakthivel himself is infatuated with Indrani (Trisha Krishnan) and Amaran too likes her. Sakthivel is jailed for a while when he kills Sadanand’s nephew, Ranvijay (Rohit Saraf), who is the cause of Manickam’s daughter’s suicide as she becomes pregnant and he is indifferent. Ranvijay’s brother, Deepak, swears vengeance and attacks Sakthivel’s car.
And the latter makes the prime mistake of suspecting Amaran of joining forces with Sadanand, who has now decided to end their war and join hands in a business deal that will bring in millions, as he is also a politician now.
Amaran, Manickam and two other faithful people now plot to kill Sakthivel when he is going on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. But he survives against impossible odds and comes back as a vendetta machine. And whaddayaknow! By the weirdest coincidence he comes to know that Chandra is alive! And so, will there be a happy ending? Not when you have Kamal Haasan and Ratnam as co-writers!
Slice, stab, shoot—Thug Life faithfully follows formulae and we have Superman Sakthivel surviving and being uber-fit to take on multiple gangsters and enemies after limitless injuries and some hospital stays. This includes his being seriously injured in snow and recovering in a Buddhist monastery if you please! The Amaran-Chandra angle is typically contrived, and I had guessed who Dr. Anna, as she is known, must be when she was introduced in the first half as the divorced wife of a principal character!
There are weird situations too—Sakthivel’s wife is shockingly lenient even when he continues his fling with Indrani (“This is my illness just as other people have diabetes!” says her husband!), and Indrani even begins to live with Amaran later when it is believed that Sakthivel is no more. The last interaction between Sakthivel and Jeeva tries to be poignant and touching but it hardly moves you. The climax between Sakthivel, Amaran and Chandra also leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
The intensity of all the fights and shootouts shown are as brutal as the worst ones we see in South Indian as well as Hindi cinema (and now web series as well) and the background music matches. A.R. Rahman insists on composing songs (including half-songs and quarter-baked pieces with liberal use of loud and stretched English pieces!) that are devoid of melody and do not help the film a wee bit!
Kamal Haasan, though predictable, walks through like a perfected automaton, though his piercing intensity is seen in flashes, including in his eyes and tonal modulation. Silambarasan steals the show increasingly as the film proceeds, and everyone else walks through with the required mechanical competence. Abhirami is wasted and the Mumbai cast used pays homage to their predominant on-screen images.
All in all, this is a movie that can be safely missed. Revisit Kamal-Mani’s Nayakan instead, and mourn the creative demise of a master director.
Rating: **
Raaj Kamal Films International’s, Madras Talkies’ & Red Giant Movies’ Thug Life Produced by: Kamal Haasan, R. Mahendran, Mani Ratnam, Siva Ananth & Udhayanidhi Stalin Directed by: Mani Ratnam Written by: Mani Ratnam & Kamal Haasan Music: A. R. Rahman Starring: Kamal Haasan, Abhirami, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy, Trisha Krishnan, Silambarasan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Nassar, Tanikella Bharani, Joju George, Ashok Selvan, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf, Mahesh Manjrekar, Rajshri Deshpande, Sp. App.:Sanya Malhotra
(Used under special arrangement from NIT)
