Ambitious but flawed gangster drama

Movie review: Thug Life

Cast: Kamal Hassan, Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan, Aishweriya Lekshmi, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan and Nasser

Director: Mani Ratnam

Rating: 6/10

THUG Life carried blockbuster ambitions from its first announcement, reuniting cinematic legends after years apart.

Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan share the screen again, as do Silambarasan with Trisha Krishnan, and Haasan with Abhirami.

The pre-release hype promised a landmark gangster drama.

Thug Life begins in Old Delhi in 1994 where we see two children caught in the cross-fire between the police and a local gang led by Rangaraaya "Manickam" Manickavel (played by Nasser) and his younger brother and co-leader Rangaraaya "Sakthi" Sakthivel  (played by Hassan).

In the chaos, Sakthivel finds a youngster, Amaran (Silambarasan), who has suffered the consequence of the gun fight. He takes in Amaran as his own once he finds out that the youngster has no one else and promises to help him find his younger sister. Years pass on and Amaran is now Sakthivel’s closest confidant.

On Sakthivel’s directive, Amaran is left to lead the gang when the latter is sent to prison. Manickam, angered by this and instigated by other gang members, begins to manipulate the situation to create a wedge between Amaran and Sakthivel, eventually convincing Amaran to kill Sakthivel.

Thug Life’s flaw lies in conventional storytelling, poor character development and an inability of the movie to reach a high point. Furthermore, the movie seems disjointed and rushed. There is a bit of saving grace though some stand-out performances.

Hassan owns his scenes, while Silambarasan is the standout performance in Thug Life, championing scenes even alongside the latter. All three actresses have limited screen time but make the most with their roles.

Trisha as Indhrani does not drive the narrative compared to her recent roles. However, she delves into a character that not many actresses at her peak would not explore. On the flipside, Abhirami is firm and warm as Jeeva. Aishwariya Lekshmi dominates the female performances and her character should have been given more screen time, so does the character of Inspector Jaikumar played by Ashok Selvan.

AR Rahman’s album is one of the positives of Thug Life with Jinguchaa and Anju Vanna Poove saving the overall viewer experience. The movie is far from Ratnam’s best movie. However, the film is sure to gain cult status at some stage.

Watch this star-studded movie with zero expectations.

Thug Life began screening on Netflix last week. 

Darshni Pather is an RJ on Southside FM as co-host of the magazine show, Sunday Morning Spice, and hosts the Tamil Top 20.

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