Thug Life

A regular reappraisal of old masters should be made standard practice in all art. Just because someone made a good movie once doesn’t mean that they should be given immunity from bad reviews for the rest of their lives. Sure, making Piku and October and Gulabo Sitabo and Sardar Udham (in a row!) allows you one I Want to Talk, but that’s all. It is only when certain sacred cows are nudged out of (self) harm’s way that they can introspect. Had somebody somebody pointed out the obvious to Sanjay Leela Bhansali years ago, we wouldn’t have had to endure Heeramandi. Had someone criticised Nayakan for what it is — a blatant act of plagiarism — we wouldn’t have had to witness director Mani Ratnam and star Kamal Haasan doing it all over again in Thug Life. The gangster drama was released on Netflix merely four weeks after it flopped in theaters. Thug Life debuted to intense scrutiny, seeing as it marked the filmmaker and actor’s first collaboration in nearly four decades. During those years, the two rose to the pinnacle of Indian cinema, having earned not just a reputation for making hits, but also a certain respect that eludes most of their colleagues. Mani Ratnam is the thinking man’s blockbuster director; Kamal Haasan is the thinking man’s movie star. And yet, the best that they could come up with is yet another tired reimagining of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, injected with a toxic dose of Prashanth Neel.

I didn’t get to catch Thug Life in theatres, thanks to the controversy sparked by Kamal Haasan’s comments about the Tamil-Kannada language connection. It didn’t get a theatrical release in Karnataka. In hindsight, it was a poorly thought-out statement that ignited a pointless feud between two neighbouring states. But that’s a saga for another blog. Thug Life is now on Netflix, and I finally watched it. Short version: I’m disappointed. Not just because it’s a dull slog — though it absolutely is — but because I could see the glimmer of potential in the material Mani Ratnam had in his head, yet he didn’t go all in. It feels like Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan had a mid-production crisis of confidence, veering off into drastic detours that left us with a film stuffed with half-baked artistic flourishes.

“You saved me from death. From now on, you and me are one,” says Kamal Haasan in one of the most strikingly shot scenes from Mani Ratnam’s ‘Thug Life’. The dialogue, albeit simple, has a profound touch to it. As the story progresses, you realise he meant what he said. Kamal Haasan’s Rangaraya Sakthivel and Silambarasan’s Amar are indeed one. But, what causes a rift between them in this world of thugs? Mani Ratnam’s ‘Thug Life’ aims to present a full-blown gangster drama rooted in this very question. Rangaraya Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) is a gangster in New Delhi and has a bunch of trusted aides, all recruited and raised by Manikkam (Nasser). An encounter leads to the death of a local newspaper vendor. Sakthivel, who is deeply disturbed to see the newspaper vendor’s son, Amar, takes him and raises him as his own son (Silambarasan) along with his wife Jeeva (Abhirami).

In 1987, the collaboration between Mani Ratnam and Kamal Hassan resulted in Nayakan, which continues to be regarded as the benchmark for gangster films in India and has influenced numerous subsequent films in that genre.

You know Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life movie is about to go off the rails (in the best way) when it opens with Kamal Haasan solemnly standing in a field, musing about death and how he has been shadowed by Yamraj (the Hindu god of death and justice) for ages. From there, we are hurled through revenge arcs and philosophical showdowns. And that’s just the first hour. Let’s explore the Thug Life movie story and ending of the Kamal Haasan movie, which is explained here. The film, after that prologue, begins with a monochrome Old Delhi in the 1990s. We learn that Kamal Haasan (perhaps digitally de-aged, perhaps not) plays the role of Sakthivel, a crime lord who rules a section of Old Delhi with his brother. Their chief rival is Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar). The scene begins with a parley between Sadanand and the brothers at the latter’s place. But the parley is a ruse, for as soon as Sadanand leaves, armed police (presumably on his payroll) enter the premises and there is a shootout.

Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam- two stalwarts coming together in a film is a cinematic event in itself. The highly anticipated film Thug Life, which marks the collaboration of the two legends after 37 years, is finally here. Expectations, thus, were high for this one from the time the film was announced. But Haasan, who also serves as a co-writer and co-producer of the film, delivers a middling performance in a formulaic film that is spruced with well-known actors, both from the south as well as the north. Ratnam, who is considered one of the best auteurs in the country, always has managed to make warm, emotional, and gritty dramas. Each of his movies has the distinct mark of the filmmaker, which is hard to emulate. Thug Life, however , seems to be more of a massy drama which doesn’t particularly have any distinct stamp of the filmmaker.

What a wonderful world it would be if Tamil and Telugu commercial directors could apply their considerable talents to telling concise, coherent stories. The bloat is out of control. I’m not just talking about the dozen retrofitted plots of Kalki 2898 AD or the maddening detours of Pushpa 2. Even smart, funny films like Jigarthanda DoubleX stretch their material unduly. I admit this isn’t a widely held opinion. Audiences today clearly like the mess. As luck would have it, the wrong director decided to simplify. Thug Life is Mani Ratnam at his most basic. This isn’t to say he’s made a terrible film—it’s just not the film you’d expect Ratnam, comfortably established as the preeminent popular director of the past 40 years, to make at 69. In his previous two films, Ponniyin Selvan: I and its sequel, he created a rich, teeming world and asked audiences to keep up. No one will have any problem following Thug Life, a remarkably linear tale for an industry that loves flashbacks and wrong-footing the viewer.