Скачать или смотреть Is Thug Life the Most Disappointing Movie of 2025? - Review by Sucharita Tyagi

Existing squarely between narcissism and nihilism, Thug Life cannot be summed up as good or bad. For Kamal Haasan fans, it’s decidedly a treat—even if it fails to become the gripping tale of power and redemption it aspires to be.

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Thug Life Review by Sucharita Tyagi - Structurally, Thug Life is a mess. Characters appear, die, disappear, or switch allegiances rapidly. Ali Fazal shows up, gets slapped thrice by Mahesh Manjrekar, and vanishes until the very last act. What his character is up to in the interim doesn’t matter. The slapping scene occurs in the same house from Animal—I’m convinced it’s the same sofa where Ranbir and Anil Kapoor screamed at each other, toh vibe hi uss building ki off hai. Rajshri Deshpande, who plays Ali Fazal’s MOTHER (??), stands outside and listens—because women are entirely unnecessary, obviously. While Ali disappears, the antagonist shifts at least three times before the interval.

Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan, who shares the writing credit, both attempt to bring all the subplots together in the third act. Threads are tied, characters collide, flashbacks are filled in. And yet, they aren’t able to justify the existence of a larger world at stake. The stakes are hyper-personal: betrayals, vendettas, one-upmanship—never about something beyond the central alpha. It’s too dramatic to be relatable, and simultaneously too thin to be an epic.

Mani Ratnam has never shied away from embedding his characters into political or historical contexts. His films place human choices within larger landscapes. Even if you’re just familiar with his Hindi-language filmography—Bombay, Dil Se, Yuva, Guru—all tell stories of people as their lives intersect and interact with the city they’re in, the specific time period, and what the nation is going through in the moment. Not that these are important or imperative things to talk about each time, but Thug Life seems allergic to world-building.
What does Sakthivel’s power mean, considering you’re TELLING us he operates his illegal empire from Delhi? Does his work affect the economy, the people, the politics? Does anyone care if he vanishes or comes back? What happens when he goes away?

Thug Life is a 2025 Indian Tamil-language gangster action drama film directed by Mani Ratnam, who co-wrote the script with Kamal Haasan. Produced by Raaj Kamal Films International, Madras Talkies, and Red Giant Movies, the film stars Haasan, Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan and Abhirami in the lead roles, alongside Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf and Baburaj. It marks the reunion of Haasan and Ratnam after their previous collaboration, Nayakan (1987).

Sucharita Tyagi is the Vice Chairperson of the Film Critics Guild of India. With nearly 20 years of media experience, she is best known for her popular movie reviews on YouTube, where she has built a community of dedicated fans. Now splitting her time between Mumbai and New York, Tyagi also has extensive experience in broadcast radio. With a unique voice, she reviews films and discusses South Asian pop culture with honesty and passion through a contemporary, feminist lens, breaking down complex issues in relatable ways.

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