Khalid Mohamed, once a cheerleader of Mani Ratnam, is taken aback with Thug Life, the auteur’s fall from grace. “More for my sanity, than for anyone else’s, here’s a take on Thug Life, which I was trying to avoid – alas in vain,” says the writer. For more than an ardent admirer of Mani Ratnam, now 69 years of age, his fathomless fall from grace with his 29th feature, hurts hard more than it disappoints.  

Veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life fails to live up to the legacy he built over decades with films like Nayakan, Roja, and Mouna Ragam. In a scathing yet heartfelt critique, Khalid Mohamed explores the pitfalls of this latest collaboration between Ratnam and Kamal Haasan—marking a sharp departure from their earlier cinematic triumphs. From narrative incoherence and historical inaccuracies to lacklustre performances and over-the-top action, the film falters on multiple fronts. While Thug Life aims for grandeur, it lacks the emotional depth and social resonance that once defined Ratnam’s cinema. Yet, hope lingers for a triumphant return from the master auteur.

For starters ‘thug’ is a misnomer, the word is derived from the Thugee cult – the blood-thirsty group of killers and thieves who’d hit on travellers, a cult which was wiped out during the colonial era. At least, the term was correctly used for the Aditya Chopra-produced chaotic Thugs of Hindostan (2018).

Even if ‘thug’ is used as slang at all here, that shows a lack of a historical fact but then that’s not important nowadays what with ‘dramatic license’ being the most convenient rebuttal.

Presumably, Gangster Life, Don Life or Underworld Life didn’t appeal to this travesty’s writer-director Ratnam and co-writer-lead actor Kamal Haasan reuniting decades 35 years after the Oscar-nominated Nayakan.

Fictional World, Flawed Execution

Located ostensibly in the 1990s underworld dives of Purani Dilli, the production designer team—including the normally flawless Sharmishta Roy—make the outdoor and indoor locations as if they were a la-di-dah land, incidentally occasionally in the capital’s airflight connection point and retail hub, Aerocity. No recognizable glimmer of Chandni Chowk, Ballimaran or Ajmeri Gate, perhaps because crowd-control would have been a mission failure.

Planned in 2022, the 2-hour-45-minuter was to be titled 234 Kamal Haasan since it was the count of the actor’s films as a hero. That would have sounded worse, a vanity project clearly. Be all that as it may, what’s in a name?

Thug Life, it is then, and what an unpalatable extra-large masala dosa it is, forcing in as many spicy ingredients as it possibly can from the kitchens of primarily Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather series, the Ratnam-Kamal Haasan Nayakan, and heaven help, slices of bitter gourd from the web series Muzaffarpur too.

The plot, if it can be called that, whirls like an out-of-control weary-go-round of treachery within and outside the folds of the oddest family feud ever conceived, indulging in revenge of ten teeth for a tooth and relentless faux machismo. Moreover, the representation of women as ear-to-ear smiling devis of tolerance set my teeth on edge. For instance, a woman accepts her husband’s adulterous dalliance with the patience of a monk, accepting him back as lost-and-found baggage.

Bizarre Action, Absent Emotion

Believe it or faint, there’s a clumsily executed action sequence, too, in which gunshots galore and a mega-forceful shove, of a none-to-fit don from a snowy mountain top – supposed to stand in for Mount Kailash—culminates in an incredible survival that sent me into a fit of chuckles.

In fact, this sequence dragged me back to Amitabh Bachchan emerging alive and kicking after a thousand bullet shots in Coolie at the Haji Ali dargah. Manmohan Desai could pull off the absurd and implausible effortlessly. Clearly, Ratnam and Co. seem to believe that mortality is a synonym for miraculous recovery.

The snag, throughout, is none of the characters entice sympathy – particularly the main protagonist Sakthivel, behaving as if they were one-dimensional illustrations borne out of Artificial ‘Intelligence’.

Ratnam's Cinematic Legacy Still Stands

In the absence of a smidgen of emotional quotient the mise-en-scene is a bombardment of kill-kill-bang-bang set pieces. If a feud between rival gangs is on, what on this planet are they being bestially avaricious about? Could it be drugs, sex trafficking, illegal armaments, extortions from miscellaneous cash-bags or egos? Go configure.

Blood brothers are on an internecine war. As for the formal opponents of these Delhi ‘thugs’, they are represented by a rather indisposed mafiosi portrayed by Mahesh Manjrekar as if he was getting over a sun stroke. In addition, it’s perplexing why Bombay’s peppy actor Sanya Malhotra pops up in a musical interlude as a chorus dancer (blink, blink, and she has evaporated) and Ali Fazal shows up in a thankless role briefer than a pair of boxer shorts.

And to think, Thug Life was jammed together by one of the most astute editors of the country Sreekar Prasad. Technically, too, the laborious whatchamacallit has been photographed unevenly by the usually brilliant Ravi K. Chandran.

An Oeuvre Worthy of Respect

Of the jampacked acting cast, only Silambarasan TR aka Simbu as a toughie strikes a formidable screen presence. Kamal Haasan does use his eyes expressively, but in the second-half succumbs to an excessive amount of put-on swag and invincibility. If he has an Achilles heel, it’s conspicuous by its absence. How I miss his supreme acting abilities down the decades, fusing vulnerability with sustained high-energy in every genre be it comedy, (Appu Raja, Pushpak, Chachi 420), brawny actioners (Nayakan, Mahanadi, Thevar Magan, and the first edition of Indian), or love stories (Sagara Sangamam, Ek Duuje ke Liye, Saagar, Sadma).

Enough of this rant - it could stretch on like the film’s running time of 2 hours-45 minutes. It still has to be acknowledged that considering Mani Ratnam’s contribution in bending the rules of mainstream cinema has been immense. His oeuvre of 25 feature films 1984 onwards is nothing to be sneezed at.

Impacting the nationwide viewers with Roja (1992), the Tamil film on the ever-topical subject was dubbed into various languages, its Hindi version released to ‘house full’ shows in Bombay’s Metro cinema. Introducing A.R. Rahman, his regular collaborator, the mandatory song interludes were poetically picturized, the relationship of the army man and his wife (Arvind Swamy-Madhoo) was lifelike, and the dramaturgy was subtle, progressing towards an essential explosive, melodramatic finale.

Melodrama is normally a no-no, but can be strongly effective if the build-up towards it adds up to organic storytelling. A cheerleader of Mani sir, among my subjective favourites, I would select Mouna Ragam (Tamil, 1986), Nayakan (Tamil, 1987), Geethanjali (Telugu, 1989), Anjali (Tamil, 1990), Bombay (Tamil-Hindi, 1995), Iruvar (Tamil,1997), despite reservations (Dil Se…Hindi,1998) and Alai Payuthey (Tamil, 2000).

Gradually, his Hindi language endeavours depended on star names actors like Shah Rukh Khan and the effort to become rankly ‘commercialise’ became far too obvious, a ploy which wasn’t a must-do for him earlier.

Final Thoughts from a Former Cheerleader

His work had so seamlessly combined entertainment and socially purposeful themes. After a somewhat mixed review of Dil Se… notably the messy climax, in The Times of India, the usually convivial auteur refused to look at my face. When I waved a “hello” to him at a hotel’s breakfast hall in Singapore, where his Yuva (Hindi, 2004) was being premiered, he had turned away as if I was made of glass. Matters not. One more name in the endless gallery of directors who cannot take criticism.

This grandpapa of a film assembled reportedly with a budget of Rs 200-300 crore was a box office downer with collections of Rs 98 crore. That or its quality, however, doesn’t diminish the regard and respect I still hold close to my heart for his unquestionably estimable body of work.

It’s just that Thug Life doesn’t carry Mani Ratnam’s legible signature. Hope burns bright though, next time around – who knows? – Mani Ratnam sir will return to the screens as you knew and loved him.