Thug Life

Thug Life Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan, Abhirami, Trisha Krishnan, Nassar, Joju George, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf

Director: Mani Ratnam

What’s Good: Kamal Haasan’s performance, the gripping first half, some of the action sequences and Silambarasan’s performance.

What’s Bad: The second half completely falters, half-baked plot and sequences devoid of logic, no development of the supporting star cast.

Loo Break: You can honestly take one in the second half, it won’t result in much of a miss.

Watch or Not?: It can be a one-time watch for all the Kamal Haasan fans out there but it was certainly a missed opportunity.

Language: Tamil

Available On: Theatrical Release

Runtime: 163 minutes

User Rating:

The beginning of Kamal Haasan’s Thug Life starts with a brief monologue of the superstar as Rangaraaya Sakthivel wherein he talks about his battle with the God of Death. This battle started right from its birth but instead of him, death took his mother. Ever since then, this battle has been ongoing, which has also affected the lives of his near and dear ones. The film begins by paving the way for this rollercoaster ride of a journey for Sakthivel. However, in the second half, we are left disappointed as we are met with numerous plot holes, a shoddy screenplay, and the supporting star cast who were an opportunity wasted.

The plot revolves around Rangaraaya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan), a dreaded gangster and politician who has established a legacy for himself in the underworld. However, his life is embroiled in power plays, conspiracies, betrayals and politics which are often closer to home. He rescues an orphaned child, Amar (Silambarasan), whose father is killed in a shootout that involved Sakthivel himself. Soon, his fate also gets intertwined with that of the traumatized child whom he raises as his own son. However, what follows is Sakthivel facing many obstacles in his underworld and political career with each passing step, wherein the enemy might be someone he calls his own.

Thug Life Movie Review: Script Analysis

The Mani Ratnam directorial begins with a strong note establishing the protagonist’s grey shades. He is an unabashed criminal, indulges in extra-marital affairs and takes pride in having escaped death several times. But at the same time, he is high on familial love, believes in women’s empowerment and dotes on his wife Jeeva (Abhirami) and daughter Mangai (Sanjana Krishnamoorthy). The first half wastes no time in formulating the underlying conflicts, betrayals, politics, and power plays in Sakhivel’s own gang.

However, the second half which had such a meaty scope for a vindictive arc falls flat in our face. For starters, the plot falls prey to several loopholes. How did Sakthivel miraculously survive so easily? How is his revenge arc coming across so easily when everything is at odds against him? How does he suddenly possess a superhuman strength despite crossing his prime stage and having faced so many life-threatening attacks? The supporting star cast, except for Silambarasan’s Amar are royally wasted when it comes to the writing and character development. Their objectives, motives and various shades aren’t fleshed out effectively and they are just fit into in a shade of black and white. The writing is so weak that the emotions are not evoked even with Haasan’s reunion with his family members and the gang members who did him wrong.

Thug Life Movie Review: Star Performance

Kamal Haasan exudes the intensity and fire in the first half, which is simply palpable. He especially shines in the emotionally high-octane scenes and the ones that require him to channel his shrewd and ruthless side. However, due to the lousy writing and execution, we fail to connect with his performance in the second half, despite it offering a more riveting shade in his performance.

Silambarasan does full justice to his character. He is raw, complex but also has a roguish charm around himself. The actor also stands out in the action sequences. Nassar and Abhirami are also the cast members who do full justice to their performances amongst the supporting star cast. Trisha Krishnan looks pretty but the entire extra-marital arc surrounding her character is annoying to behold and she shares zero chemistry with Kamal Haasan on top of that. However, it is Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf, Mahesh Manjrekar and Aishwarya Lekshmi who are an opportunity wasted in terms of the writing and their overall character development.