Director - Mani Ratnam
Cast - Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan, Abhirami, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf, Baburaj 
Duration – 163 Minutes
 
When Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan team up after 37 years since the genre-defining Nayakan, expectations shoot through the bullet-ridden roof. So yes, Thug Life isn’t the flawless gangster drama many were hoping for—but what it lacks in perfection, it makes up for in swagger, scale, and sheer cinematic charisma.
 
At its heart, Thug Life is about loyalty, betrayal, and the inevitable cycle of violence that comes with being the king of the underworld. Kamal Haasan plays Rangaraya Sakthivel, a revered (read: feared) don with a tragic past and a bulletproof sense of style. Picture him as the Tamil Godfather meets a philosophical lion — battle-scarred but still roaring. When his own protégé-turned-son figure, Amaran (played by a magnetic Silambarasan TR), begins to question the throne, all hell breaks loose.
 
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where Thug Life finds its pulse — not in groundbreaking originality, but in how it leans into its genre tropes with full-throttle flair. There’s operatic betrayal, slow-motion gunfights, shadowy standoffs, and dramatic monologues that could rival Shakespeare if he’d grown up watching The Sopranos. Mani Ratnam isn’t reinventing the gangster wheel here — he’s polishing it till it gleams.
 
That said, the film is far from perfect. The pacing hiccups in the second half, some subplots (like Ali Fazal’s revenge arc) feel like they were sketched during lunch breaks, and yes, Kamal's miraculous survival scenes might test your suspension of disbelief. But Thug Life was never meant to be a grounded drama — it’s a grand, gritty opera in a designer sherwani.
 
What really works is the dynamic between Kamal and Simbu. Their scenes crackle with tension and genuine emotion. Simbu brings fire and flair, playing Amaran as a man torn between admiration and ambition. And Kamal? He doesn’t act. He commands. Whether he's lighting a cigar or staring down enemies half his age, he's magnetic, melancholic, and sometimes downright menacing.
 
Shout-out to Trisha, who adds soul to the film as Indrani, a lounge singer with steel in her voice and sorrow in her eyes. And Ravi K. Chandran’s cinematography? A visual feast. Think blazing sunsets, rainy alleyways, chiaroscuro shootouts— it’s poetry, drenched in gunpowder.
 
And while A.R. Rahman’s background score isn’t his most memorable, it still provides enough emotional and rhythmic heft to keep the drama afloat. You’ll find yourself humming the theme long after the credits roll.
 
Thug Life may not be the gangster epic to end all gangster epics, but it’s got heart, heat, and heaps of old-school masala charm. Watch it for the performances, the style, and the simple joy of seeing legends go full throttle in a world of guns, guilt, and gusto.