Thug Life movie review: A 'Nayakan' fails his frenzied followers

Kamal Haasan tries to do a Rajnikanth. But a super star is a super star. The song Vinveli nayaka may venerate and valourise the man and his machoness. However, all of 70 plus Kamal Haasan is such a poor, pale shadow of himself that shouldering Thug Life, given it is his own production, simply weighs and wilts him down to its woeful waterloo.

Right from the 13 min introduction to the film, it is simply a downhill ride. Not even for a moment, as a person who has seen some fine performances from the Ulaganayagan, does Thug Life nor its titular hero Shakti ever engage you or keep you invested in its most mundane and heavily regurgitated plotline.

In fact, not just Kamal Haasan, even the ever reliable Mani Ratnam, who has given vision to uncle Kamal Haasan’s pedestrian plot, not only plods along several timelines, but also takes viewers cris-crossing across the country to make it pan India, just flounders, both trying to mimic the success of superlative 'Nayakan', while miserably failing on all fronts.

The film features a cast drawn from across South India and the Hindi belt. While the intent to create a pan-Indian film is evident, the storyline feels dated and overdone. Even die-hard Kamal fans, rooted and glued to the insipid goings-on in the film will find it a miserable time at the movies.

Car chases, gun battles, women treated as "flies to wanton boys" — these elements knitted into the storyline make the two-hour, thirty-nine-minute runtime feel tedious and uncomfortable.

A rival don's deceit, a cop-gangsters gun battle, a suicide following the mistreatment of a pregnant girl, and a subsequent revenge plot, all too familiar thriller tropes sets the stage for an intense turf war between underworld rivals. This conflict then evolves into a more personal and intellectual battle of betrayal and one-upmanship between brothers and a son.

Brilliant performers like Trisha Krishnan, Abhirami and Aishwarya Lekshmi are all reduced to pretty, putty puppets as men rage and rant slaying one another. Even Marathi import Mahesh Manjrekar or Ali Fazal from Bollywood cannot breathe life into a dead horse of a puerile plot it foists on their trusted and loyal admirers.

Both Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam have had their heydays and have rightfully basked in the halo of their early commendable works. However, both have sadly hit the bottom pit of their creativity. They would be better off resting on their early laurels and wisely retire basking in former glory before any further display of their waning artistry and vision.

Despite its iconic names and foot tapping songs, the film ultimately falls flat due to a storyline that feels sickeningly weak, obnoxiously monotonous, and entirely predictable, preventing this portrayal of a self-proclaimed "Yakuza one-man show" from truly resonating.