Every frame of Thug Life, director Mani Ratnam and actor Kamal Haasan’s sophomore collaboration after Nayakan has a story to tell. And I don’t mean that in any divisive, showoffy-art way. While we stare wondrously at what cinematographer Ravi Chandran has done to every frame (and make no mistake, Chandran is this breathtaking film’s other hero after Kamal Haasan), we also get a drift of the individual artwork that comes together finally to give us a gangster epic on a par with Kamal-Mani’s much-revered Nayakan.
Yes, Thug Life is THAT good! The writing is sharp (most of the time), and the way Mani Ratnam sneaks in humour in dramatic constructs is sheer genius. Reading reviewers’ comments on the familiar ground walked by Mani Ratnam, I am reminded of what my friend Javed Akhtar said about film lyrics. “Bhai, gaane toh sab ek jaise hote hai, pyar, judaai, ehsaas, milan… It is how you use words. That’s where the poetry lies.”
Mani Ratnam has woven a unique pastiche of family ties and irredeemable betrayals from a story that secretes the familiar beat of the trodden. Ratnam finds poetry in violence. The shootouts, and especially a hand-to-hand combat that comes at the climax, are vintage Coppola combined with a choreographic flair that reminded me of Bruce Lee’s Mastercraft.
At its heart, Thug Life (that title doesn’t do any justice to the experience) is a paean to patricide. What prompts a son, or in this case the foster son, to plot his own father’s death?
At one point, at gunpoint, Sakthivel (the magnificent Kamal Haasan) observes, “This is Delhi. There’s a tradition of familial killings here, from the Moghul Aurangzeb onwards.”
There is a peculiar piquancy, a savage poetic justice, in the way Kamal Haasan’s character is betrayed by those close to him. Unbeknownst to himself, Sakthivel has been betraying his beloved wife (Abhirami) by carrying on an illicit affair with a bar dancer (Trisha, lovely and pitch-perfect). For Sakthivel, the surreptitious affair isn’t a betrayal. It is his birthright to let his heart and loins stray.
In his finest performance of the last decade, Kamal Haasan brings a Shakespearean invincibility to his vulnerable role of a powerful patriarch whose life unravels at a rapid pace as those close to him turn against him.
In the post-interval gripping half, Sakthivel returns to avenge his betrayals.
But where does he start? The articulate screenplay (written jointly by Mani and Kamal) takes that decision for Sakthivel, spiralling his life into a series of enrapturing action sequences shot with a vigour which defines True Cinema. Cinematographer Ravi Chandran is a solid ally to Mani Ratnam’s vision. I wonder what the film would have looked like in another cinematographer’s vision! Not this, for sure.
Editor A. Sreekar Prasad cuts into two different action sequences simultaneously. This, I haven’t seen in any film. Not that I was seeking any USPs in this tale of the trodden. The familiar scenes of violence explode on screen with a rush of reinforced splendour. It’s like visiting the real Himalaya after scaling little hills and mountains.
Mani Ratnam gives us a reassuring taste of the epic, albeit in a bruised barter. One coincidental episode that crops up at the end had me flummoxed. Why diminish the acts of destiny by bringing in such speedbreakers?
Thug Life serenades the life of violence with a resolute ruggedness. Besides Kamal Haasan, who is sheer brilliance in almost every shot, Silambarasan is arresting as the foster son, while Joju George, Nasser, and Rajshri Deshpande are wasted.
