“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” — This line doesn’t just haunt the characters in Thug Life, it eerily mirrors the trajectory of filmmaker Mani Ratnam himself in what is arguably his weakest film to date.
Despite the promise of a powerhouse ensemble — Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan, Trisha, Joju George, with a score by AR Rahman and visuals by Ravi K Chandran — Thug Life collapses under the weight of ambition without coherence.
🧨 What Goes Wrong?
- Underwhelming Screenplay: A story ripe with potential — crime, betrayal, power struggles — is rendered lifeless by shallow writing, unearned emotional arcs, and exposition-laden dialogues that tell without ever showing.
- Character Arcs That Go Nowhere:
- Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) is introduced as a layered anti-hero, but the film never earns his complexities.
- Amaran (Silambarasan), who should’ve been a tragic mirror to Sakthivel, suffers from one of the weakest character introductions in recent Tamil cinema.
- Women Reduced to Props:
- Trisha (Indrani) and Abhirami (Jeeva) are barely more than romantic tokens.
- Emotional dynamics — particularly the Sakthivel–Indrani and Sakthivel–daughter threads — are criminally underexplored.
💔 Mani Ratnam’s Decline?
This film is not the work of a master in control of his craft. Instead, Thug Life plays like a bloated imitation of Nayakan, echoing its themes without understanding its soul.
- The emotional backbone is either missing or poorly handled.
- Dialogues lean into self-indulgence, and narrative twists (like cliff-fall survivals and betrayals) feel outdated or lazy.
- Moments that should evoke poignance or awe are strangely flat.
🎥 What Works (Barely)?
- Ravi K Chandran’s cinematography is the true hero here. Every frame, even the most insipidly written one, looks spectacular.
- One gripping scene — the Sakthivel–Pathros (Joju George) confrontation — stands out as a rare moment of intensity.
- A few glimpses of Rahman’s musical brilliance, though mostly marred by poor placement and inconsistent scoring.
🎭 Kamal Haasan: Hero or Misfit?
In a film that requires simmering rage and emotional restraint, Kamal veers into over-the-top theatrics, seeming out of sync with both story and co-stars. It’s one of his more disconnected performances in recent memory, never quite merging with the tonal fabric of the film.
⚖️ Verdict:
Thug Life tries to be an epic but ends up a visually polished misfire. With incoherent storytelling, poor character work, and a script that overstays its welcome, this is Mani Ratnam at his most frustrating. For fans of the auteur, it’s a sobering reminder that even legends can falter when style overtakes substance.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
Watch it only if you’re a Mani-Kamal completist — or if you want to study how a potentially powerful story can unravel when the pen forgets the pulse.
