★ 1 / 10
By Ms Lokawaran, for those who still believe
Srilata A
By Ms Lokawaran, for those who still believe cinema is sacred We enter with guns, glass, and gods. But we exit with none of them intact. — Ms Lokaswaran A…
By Ms Lokawaran, for those who still believe cinema is sacred
We enter with guns, glass, and gods.
But we exit with none of them intact. — Ms Lokaswaran
A culmination of two giants — Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan. The expectations were titanic. And yet, you walk out trying to piece together logic, struggling to find a reason to back your disbelief. What did I just see?
Kamal and Mani’s Thug Life begins with the weight of legacy, the music of myth, the choreography of a man who has walked through fire. And yet, somehow, it forgets the one thing that has always made Kamal great in any signature Mani Ratnam film: his humanity.
This is not a casual review. This is a post-mortem of a film that had a soul on the table — and left it untouched.
Let’s be honest. Kamal falls from a mountain with a bullet wound, crashes through a branch that should’ve broken his spine, and walks to a monastery without a single moment of consequence.
No frostbite.
No fatigue.
Just a new robe, and a few choreographed hand gestures that whisper “monk” but shout “marketing.”
I know he’s rebranded as STR now, but to me, he’s still our beloved Simbu — and he looks lost in a film he was asked to carry. He fits the frame in songs, and perhaps that’s the crowd-puller — for one viewing. His finest scene — fists bound, fury unleashed — is primal, unscripted brilliance.
But everywhere else? His eyes flicker with the same confusion we feel in the audience: “Enna da nadakuthu inga?”
Trisha, goddess of restraint and untapped longing, burns quietly in her scenes with Simbu. There’s chemistry. Tension. Space. It’s the kind of performance that could’ve birthed an unforgettable triangle — one torn between reverence for a saviour (Kamal) and love for a man who mirrors her broken youth (Simbu).
But the film doesn’t let her speak. It lets her appear. And that, in 2025, is a crime.
Ashok Selvan is written like a yo-yo: genius, clown, then ghost. His wife, Aishwarya Lekshmi — the woman who delivers the only moment of true shock and gravitas — is robbed of all build-up. When she whispers, “I’m his sister,” it lands, yes — but on barren ground.
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★ 8 / 10
Solid cast. Cinematography was great; though some green
Kumar P
Solid cast. Cinematography was great; though some green screen shots were obvious. The fight sequences were well choreographed. Kamal performed well, so did…
Solid cast. Cinematography was great; though some green screen shots were obvious. The fight sequences were well choreographed. Kamal performed well, so did STR (i was never a fan of STR, but I must say he played his part well). I'm a little confused with ARR's choice of music for certain scenes, but overall the music was ok.
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