Thug Life movie review: The Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam flick fails to recreate Nayakan magic on screen

The movie revolves around Rangaraya Shaktivel (Kamal Haasan), a notorious gun-wielding (and martial arts trained) gangster in Old Delhi and as the movie begins, he tells the audience that Yama (Lord of Death) has appeared at his doorstep innumerable times only to have returned with no success. Sadanand (Mahesh Manjrekar) is Shaktivel and his elder brother Manickam’s (Nasser) biggest rival and in 1994, thanks to Sandanand’s betrayal a major police shoot-out occurs which sees a newspaper vendor’s son named Amar (Simbu) turn orphan.

Failing to find Amar’s younger sister Chandra after the melee, Shaktivel brings up Amar like his own son and teaches him the ropes of how to run their illegal businesses as successfully, and more, than him. However, the gangster isn’t without his vices. Though Shaktivel leads a happy life with his wife Jeeva (Abhirami) and daughter Mangai, his only ‘disease’ - as he tells Jeeva - is his mistress Indrani (Trisha) whom he’s unable to part with.

Obviously, as a gangster, there are bound to be enemies and sudden conflicts and the film takes us through how these impact Shaktivel and his family. How does Amar become Shaktivel’s enemy? Why does he want revenge? What happens to Shaktivel’s family? Does Yama finally succeed in taking Shaktivel?