#ThugLife Review

#ThugLife

2025- Tamil

Starring : Kamal Hassan , Silambarasan TR , Ashok Selvan ,Abhirami, Trisha , Aishwarya Lekshmi , Nasser , Ali Faizal , Arjun Chidambaram, Joju George and Mahesh Manjrekar

Directed by Mani Ratnam 

Plot: Rangaraya Sakthivel Nayakar, a notorious gangster from Delhi, adopts a young boy named Amaran after the boy’s father is killed in a crossfire and his sister goes missing. Raised under Sakthivel’s wing, Amaran grows up to become his most trusted ally. However, when an assassination attempt is made on Sakthivel, a trail of suspicion leads him to uncover dark truths about his mentor. In a shocking turn, Amaran himself ends up killing Sakthivel, only to be betrayed and nearly killed by Sakthivel’s vengeful family. Surviving the attack, Sakthivel disappears for two years and returns as a fierce martial artist, seeking vengeance against those who turned against him. Whether he succeeds in his path of revenge forms the rest of the story.

Performance wise , Kamal Hassan eases the role of Sakthivel. While the character oscillates between seriousness and sarcasam , Kamal does it with ease but unfortunately due to underdeveloped character we are not able to connect with it. Loved his performance in Beach scene(though some call it Cringe and cliched, the performance by Kamal was top notch) . Silambarasan as Amaran was good but again due to very underwritten character, the character started to feel like a caricature who just dances to others tunes. Though his performance was really good he brought Amaran to life, the arc and characterization could've been much much better. Ashok Selvan as Jaikumar is terrific and brings in the much needed impact on screen. Trisha as Indrani feels useless in the story. Her performance was somewhat good in the Beach scene but otherwise that, her role doesn't even create an impact. Abhirami on the other hand does Good in a limited scope. While her second half makeover seemed unintentionally funny, her performance was good. Nasser is terrific as usual . Arjun Chidambaram  and Buggs decent. Joju George and Ali Fazal felt wasted with cliched and stereotypical characters that didn't engage the audience nor explore the acting prowess of two such talented actors. Aishwarya Lekshmi who comes in last 45 mins is great with a limited scope . Sanchana decent performance without much to perform. Mahesh Manjrekar decent role , good performance.

Technically, the film is terrific. Thanks to Ravi K Chandran's Artistic Cinematography, each and every frame is rich and visually pleasing. AR Rahaman's Songs are good but mostly are cut and we don't get to hear full versions on screen. BGMs are really good (The Drums kinda bgm was terrific). Unfortunately, Sreekar Prasad's Editing looks choppy and haphazard and needed better cuts and transitions. Average VFX. Decent Stunt work by Anbarivu where some stunts work, some are over the top.

The film starts in 1994 with introduction of how Sakthivel and Amaran meet. While the De-Agining is terrific, the B&W presentation is what makes the first 15-20 mins terrific. Then we are moved to 2016, where Amaran is the trusted confidant of Sakthivel now. While this relationship is what forms the base of the concept, the visual portrayal lacked depth. Audience were not able to feel the closeness and bonding between Sakthivel and Amaran as it felt too unnatural and plastic. Wish they had added more scenes to portray the complex yet rooted bond both of them share that would've cemeneted a better foundation for the rest of the acts. Also the entire Trisha side track felt uneasy considering the age gap. While this is the plot point of that side track , it does not add any value to the main story. The Jinguchaan placement was good and song is catchy but again does not add anything to the core plot and feels like a deviation. The High which audience felt on STR's Intro gradually decereased due to the underwhelming writing and situations. Not even one scene was genuinely innovative or new. Everything felt like a rehash of some film. Ofcourse visually it was stunning but the content felt very stale. The Assassination attempt sequence was great and the staging was fantastic but after that things go downhill.The Entire Kathmandu episode feels rushed and subpar VFX makes it even more unintentionally funny. Not to mention, you will definitely start comparing that Sequence to another Tamil film that was a disaster few years ago. Kamal tries to make it look new with his performance but again bad writing.The So called pre Interval twist also fails to bring any high. While STR's Performance in the Interval Monologue scene was terrific still feels outdated.

The Second Half is where the film completely derails . There is no coherence. One Scene you see  Antagonists panicking about Sakthi's return and get on a choper and out of nowhere Sakthi comes in a Martial Artist costume and kills him. This is as silly to write and visually bring it on also. While there was an interesting Three Way war sequence between Kamal - Ashok - STR , that could've been explored in a much better way which would've made the second half atleast redeemable. As i mentioned, there are two Beach Confrontation scenes among Kamal - Abhirami & STR- Trisha both are terrific and have wonderful potential to uphold the film but the following underwhelming scenes drag it down. The Pre Climax twist with Aishwarya Lekshmi also feels too predictable. The Climax Fight was fantastic but feels stretched beyond a point and ending also was too conviniently written to cater an positive ending.

Talking about the Negatives of the film , the film right from mid of the first half suffers from Predictablity. Each and every scene feels very cliched and have seen it multiple times. It is never wrong to do a straightforward film, there have been a lot of straightforward films that have succeeded and the reason for it is the novelty in proceedings. Here neither the situations are unique and new , nor the proceedings are different. The Entire Trisha track felt very uneasy again considering the age gap. The Entire concept of Sugar Daddy (atleast thats what Sugar Baby song indirectly references it as) felt very forced , and without that also the story could've progressed. The film has so many wonderful arcs that could've been possibly explored but unfortunately the film tries to stick to the predictable base concept and does not try to experiment at all. There is one scene where Kamal tries to kill an Antagonist on Goa Bridge and the scene unintentionally becomes funny with the dialogues. The Scene which is a followed by a short emotional sequence feels distorted due to funny sequence before which disintegrates the seriousness of this scene. Also due to very weak writing of Antagonists , none of the threats matter to the Protagonist and feels silly.

Coming to Writer Director Mani Ratnam, it is easily one of his most underwhelming films. While Mani Ratnam has had underwhelming films in his filmography such as Kadal , none of them have been termed as Bad and Thug Life is an new entry to that category. While there are some trademark Mani Ratnam beautiful frames , none of his magic work here. While the screenplay was co-written by Kamal , the film needed better writing and staging. Kamal & STR try to salvage this dud but unfortunately fails large time due to a horrible second half that derails the film completely.

Highlights:

1)STR Jaisalmer Chase Scene

2)Interval Monologue Scene by STR

3)Station Subway Fight by Kamal

Overall: Thug Life is an Underwhelming Action Drama that soaks in predictablity right from frame one of the film. While Kamal & STR give their best , the underwritten characters and bad staging bogs it down , making the film unbearable in the Second half. Decent first half , Unbearable Second Half. Much better than Indian 2 but not the Naayakan re-union that Audience wanted.

Rating : 2/5

Digital Rights : Netflix 

Satellite Rights : Vijay Tv Network