Thug Life Review: A Gangster Epic That Misses the Emotional Core

After decades since their cult classic Nayagan, the legendary duo Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan reunite for Thug Life, a sprawling gangster drama with a star-studded ensemble—Silambarasan TR, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Trisha, Joju George, and more.

The story follows Shakthivel (Kamal Haasan), a gangster in 1994 Delhi who adopts a boy named Amar (Silambarasan TR) during a police shootout—an act of redemption after his own men are responsible for the boy’s father’s death. Amar becomes estranged from his sister, Chandra, and Shakthivel promises to reunite them. Years later, misunderstandings and the brutalities of life in crime pull them into a spiral of conflict and emotional disarray.

There’s no denying Mani Ratnam’s mastery of craft. His visual storytelling, staging, and eye for performances remain top-notch. But the soul that defined his classics—Roja, Bombay, Kannathil Muthamittal—feels noticeably absent here. Thug Life suffers from a thin emotional core, weighed down by its ambition to juggle multiple characters and timelines.

The Delhi setting of the mid-90s feels emotionally disconnected from the Tamil audience, unlike Bombay, which despite its regional distance, struck a powerful chord due to its raw emotional heft. Here, the characters struggle to evoke the same depth.

Kamal Haasan delivers a class act, subtly powerful and deeply restrained. But Silambarasan’s character is underwritten—despite decent screen time, his presence feels more ornamental than integral. Ashok Selvan stands out in his limited portions, and Abhirami gives a mature, composed performance. Trisha’s role is surprisingly shallow, offering little to the narrative, while the baddies—Joju George, Nassar, and Bhagavathi Perumal—feel underdeveloped and ineffective.

AR Rahman’s score, usually a strength in Mani Ratnam’s films, is oddly inconsistent here. The songs are passable, but the background music often fails to elevate key scenes. One exception: the emotional resonance of Anju Vanna Poove the pre-climax—arguably the film’s standout moment.

Visually, Ravi K. Chandran is the film’s true hero. The cinematography is stunning, with stark transitions in tone—dark palettes in the first half shifting to lighter hues post-interval—mirroring the narrative arc. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is competent but feels compromised; several transitions are abrupt, suggesting trimmed subplots or deleted sequences.

The biggest issue? Thug Life feels like a film that was shot with a footage more than 3 hours long but got compressed into 165 minutes, losing its connective tissue along the way. The result is a technically proficient film that never fully grips the heart.

Thug Life is a grand return of Mani Ratnam with stellar craft and performances, especially from Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan. But the film falters in its emotional storytelling, leaving behind a visually rich yet narratively hollow experience.