Thug Life, Mani Ratnam-Kamal Hassan ‘s Sophomore Alliance Is Thankfully Not Nayakan 

Rating: ****

 Every frame of  Thug Life, director Mani Ratnam and  actor  Kamal Hassan’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 sneak 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 specially 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 one 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.