‘Thug Life’ movie review: Kamal Haasan’s fiery performance aside, Mani Ratnam’s gangster drama shoots blanks

 

When an auteur like Mani Ratnam returns

to a genre he is known for, with a maverick multihyphenate like Kamal Haasan, the expectations are naturally high; the worst result one could anticipate is a film that works but doesn’t necessarily redefine the genre. Seldom would you expect a Thug Life, which bafflingly feels like a Mani Ratnam-ish film that gave in to the mainstream compulsion of being a modern-day Tamil potboiler. A 163-minute chronicle of an elderly gangster’s tryst with love, destiny, guilt and death, Thug Life is a gangster crime drama with stretches so generic and cold that you might wonder if it was really the filmmaker at the helm.

Given his oft-discussed distinct filmmaking style,

you can’t help but look out for a certain Mani Ratnam-esque quality in the mise-en-scène, like the shots of a young boy running into a framed entrance of a chawl, and later, standing there helplessly, drowned in grief, in the initial portions of the film. The sheer promise that shone through the first twenty minutes or so is hard even to reminisce. We begin in 1994, in a scene of gorgeous monochrome. A police shootout ensues at a chawl in Old Delhi, where wanted gangster Rangaraya Sakthivel (a de-aged Kamal) and his chieftains — Manickam (Nasser), Pathrose (Joju George), Anburaj (Bagavathi Perumal) and co — have gathered. In a tragic turn of events, one of Sakthivel’s men inadvertently kills a newspaper vendor (Elango Kumaravel), leaving his two children orphaned.

Gutted by his death, Sakthivel adopts his son, Amar,

and promises to find his sister, Chandra, who went missing in the commotion that followed the episode. With AR Rahman punctuating the enchanting ‘Anju Vanna Poove’ score with silences, the sequence tugs at your heartstrings. This is where the heart of this narrative resides, and this is the pulse of narration you expect from Mani Ratnam’s school of filmmaking. This is also what you hold onto as scenes move on to depict the life of Sakthivel from 2016 onwards — his tender moments with his wife Jeeva (Abhirami); his lust for his mistress Indrani (an underutilised Trisha); the warmth he shows Amar (a restrained Silambarasan TR); his enmity with his nemesis Sadhanand and the trouble it is sprouting in the form of Sadhanand’s revenge-thirsty brother-in-law Deepak (Ali Fazal); and a silent thirst for power that is growing among his men. Unfortunately, Thug Life winds its way hastily, unanchored to that potent crux.

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Tourist Family’ movie review: This Sasikumar-Simran feel-good film leaves you all fuzzy

 A family is trying to flee Sri Lanka and lands up in Rameshwaram, 

only to get noticed by the cops. They are picked up in a police van. The mood is sombre. But what follows is a really funny five-minute sequence that sets the tone for the entire film.

It can be argued that Dharmadas (Sasikumar) is this movie’s hero, but the script does not have a single protagonist; rather, it’s this entire family of four that forms the fulcrum of the script.

Director Abishan Jeevinth’s Tourist Family

 is all about boundaries and ways to break them. A Sri Lankan family with fake documentation has arrived in a Chennai colony, which has, among other people, a grumpy man who rarely socialises, a drunkard who keeps getting yelled at, and a girl wanting to move abroad but changing her mind.

That all these characters live together and are close-knit makes things interesting. Remember director Radha Mohan’s Mozhi? The first half of Tourist Family reminds one of that 2007 Tamil film, just in terms of feeling and flavour.

That fuzzy feeling slowly gives way for some deeper emotional beats. 

A death of a character occurs at a pivotal point, thus making way for more insight into the lead character, Das’, mind. Why is Das as generous and kind-hearted as he is, and how is that going to benefit him and his family in the long run, is an angle that Tourist Family seeks to explore in detail.

Simran, Yogi Babu and Sasikumar in ‘Tourist Family’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The performances are fine. Sasikumar won quite a few hearts with 2023’s Ayothi,

 a film that emphasised the importance of kindness and love over religion, and he continues in the same vein here too, in a film that categorises deeds of kindness over language or even nationality. As Vasanthy, Simran fits in perfectly in this happy family of four. Nitushan (Mithun Jai Shankar) gets a couple of impactful sequences, but the scene-stealer happens to be the young Mulli, played by Kamalesh Jagan. The boy has solid screen presence and seems comfortable with his comic timing, a quality that will surely fetch him more roles in the future.

Tourist Family (Tamil)

Director: Abishan Jeevinth

Cast: Sasikumar, Simran, Yogi Babu, MS Bhaskar Elango Kumaravel

Run-time: 127 minutes

Storyline: A Sri Lankan family escapes to Tamil Nadu to settle down in a comic yet emotional drama

The biggest strength and weakness of Tourist Family, depending on how you want to see it, is its oscillation between the lighter and heavier moments. A laugh often punctuates a serious scene, like the ones involving a death and a break-up. The emotional moments do strike a chord but one wishes that the humour, which works to a large extent, was placed a little better.

Tourist Family could have done with a little more laughs. The irreverence that the makers had put into the title teaser, featuring the young boy trying to silently open the door while his shoes made squeaking noise — a sequence that had me laughing for quite a while — seems to be in little dosage in the film. But what really helps is Sean Roldan’s score, going with the moods that the film travels through. When there’s emotion, the man is going ‘Iragey’ but when the mood is upbeat, there’s ‘Aachaley’ to groove to.

Beyond the emotions and songs, Tourist Family also makes important points about how we perceive people based on where they hail from. In a world where the mention of war is being bandied about, it’s a timely reminder to love thy neighbour. It’s also a reminder to be honest and converse with people to understand them better. Kadaipoma?

Tourist Family is currently running in theatres

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