Thug Life

Yep, this is the weakest storytelling I've ever seen in a Mani Ratnam film. Even Kadal and Kaatru Veliyidai come across as better (storytelling) efforts in comparison. What the heck happened to Kamal Haasan? Just because Vikram worked, he's decidedly gone the "action hero" route, playing roles with zero emotional depth or connect. Rangaraya Sakthivel is a cardboard cutout, and so is the entire bunch of characters that revolve around him. The actors (Simbu and Joju George, especially) try their best to rise above the wafer-thin script, offering mild hopes in the first half. But you're in for the most generic revenge-action-drama in the second.

The action blocks (choreographed by Anbariv) are not individually terrible -- in fact, there are a couple of standout attempts, such as a train station fight and a car chase that concludes at the Red Fort, which are quite exciting. ARR's score was really oscillating both ways -- solid as well as subpar (the whole snow sequence had me cringing like hell). Some of the songs are good too, like Jinguchaa, adding a little zing to the overall dull proceedings. Anju Vanna Poove is such a nice track, but the way the film incorporates bits and pieces of it in a scattered way didn't win me over.

Thug Life starts solidly, with a well-done flashback sequence presented in monochrome. The de-aging work is appreciable too; I'm almost sensing a pattern here. In films that get the de-aging process right, the rest of the VFX (like an avalanche sequence) is often so shoddy. The characterizations of Indrani (Trisha), Amar (Simbu), and Dr. Anna (Aishwarya Lekshmi) only look fascinating on the surface. Deep down, they're all one-note with a specific purpose to fulfill.

DoP Ravi K Chandran offers some spectacular frames, though sadly, the film's screenplay doesn't do justice. I'm really appalled by (National Award Winner) Sreekar Prasad's edit work in the film; there's hardly any connective tissue between scenes. Everything is simply stacked together, with no sense of emotional understanding. The larger blame definitely goes to the script (co-written by Ratnam and Haasan), but still. What was even that embarrassment of a climax? Gosh.

It was surely better than Indian 2 but...*sigh* this will go down as one of the worst this year, no two ways about it.

If you have this cast + Mani Ratnam + ARR + all the other fancy technicians and actors and your movie still tanks, there's no excuse. The bucks stops with the co-writers Mani and Kamal and ultimately, with Mani as the director. The teams' capabilities don't matter if your team is misdirected.

Simbu - probably the biggest winner from this venture, he was good with whatever he was asked to do. Kamal was what you'd expect from his film. And unfortunately, everybody else was (almost) wasted.

Not sure how much was changed from Kamal's original script, but the writing, including some of the dialogues, were horrible and demanded very generous liberties. I can't discuss why without going into spoilers but it's not worth it. I've already spent a lot of time on this abomination.

Some reviewers out there are being extra harsh, but I assure you, it's better than Indian 2. Worth spending your $ on ? Probably not. Wait for it to get on streaming.

For the first 10-15 minutes, the movie is such a banger, but after the 10-15 minutes there is some usual commercial film scenes, ok then we expect for some great scenes but the great scenes were not there.

The story is not good and screenplay is worse than the story, songs and bgms are not satisfied our expectation.

The main problem in this movie is character writing not even a single character written good, the writing of the film is good in first 15 mins is good but not good in rest of the movie. There is lot of characters who doesn't give impact to this story.

It's the worst movie in Manirathnam's career and one of the worst movie by KH. First we witnessed the downfall of Shankar and now we may witness the downfall of Manirathnam.

The first half of the movie gives ok to decent feel because of scenes between KH-STR and Trisha vs Abirami and nice song placement marriage song ("Jingucha") but 2nd half was literally very worse by adding unwanted, predictable,unemotional and action scenes even there is a scene like a scene from Vivegam movie.

We taught that we may see Nayagan kamal on screen but we literally seen panchathanthiram kamal while romantic scenes between KH with Trisha and Abirami.

Overall 4 marks for the first few minutes and decent first half. Decent first half with poor second half.

I wasted my money don't waste yours.

Thug Life (2025) - 40%

One Of The Worst Films Of 2025... I Still Don't Want To Believe That Legends Mani Ratnam & Kamal Haasan Who Have Given Us The Masterpiece Nayakan Collaborated For Such A Film... What Had Happened To Them While Writing & Filming This One... Didn't They Felt What They Are Making? Also What An Actress Like Trisha Was Doing In The Film Is Beyond My Understanding... She Had Been Completely Wasted & Same Goes For Ali Fazal... A. R. Rahman's Music Is Good, But The Background Score Many A Times Doesn't Match The Visuals On Screen... The Character Of Silambarasan & Haasan Aren't Even Developed Properly & As A Result, You Do Not Connect With Them At Any Juncture In The Film... The Few Plus Points Apart From Music Are Cinematography & Action Blocks... Overall, This One's A Huge Disappointment... Avoid At All Cost.

When you name a film Thug Life, a name chosen by the masters of cinema and filmmakers, and that too using a culturally iconic term like Thug Life, it comes with expectations. The term represents how society mistreats or neglects certain groups. That neglect creates cycles of violence, trauma, and systemic failure that hurt everyone.

The term is often glorified or associated with pride and criminal life, but it carries a much deeper meaning. It is about survival. So naturally, you can imagine the expectations and feelings it invokes.

You need to know that I am an ardent Mani Ratnam fan. My cultural and artistic foundations were built on his films. I grew up in a world of films where he dominated. He was my icon. But revered icon or not, a spade has to be called a spade.

Thug Life felt like self-indulgent hero worship. The screenplay was extremely weak, with absolutely no plot or motivation. Sure, it was well-made in terms of production value, but that is all. Mani Ratnam is known for being a master storyteller who uses layered plot points to drive a narrative and evoke emotion. Here, it was almost appalling to see the same man rely so heavily on expositions, so many of them, even for useless points. It felt insulting to a point.

Kamal probably had his fill. Like I said, this felt like self-indulgence, coming hot off Indian 2. If anyone gave a truly memorable performance, it was the women in the film. All of them except Trisha...and that is no fault of hers.

The only two saving graces were the cinematography and A. R. Rahman's music. Rahman went god level with the score.

It makes me so uncomfortable to say this, but this has got to be Mani Ratnam's worst film ever in terms of storytelling and narrative. I need to go watch Nayakan, Aayutha Ezhuthu, and Kannathil Muthamittal again to recover.