A hero and a director that Chennai cannot get enough of

Excitement builds as Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam reunite for Thug Life, reminiscent of their iconic film Nayagan.

Two prodigal sons have joined forces again, and cinephiles are excited. Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu have posters of Thug Life placed at strategic junctions. Be it in the State’s capital or on the ghat road winding up towards Kodaikanal, images from the film have drawn attention. When Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam collaborate, it will make news. This actor-director combination had lit up the screens back in the Madras of 1987, thanks to Nayagan, and nearly 38 years later, they are stepping together with Thug Life.

Teaser, trailer, and the audio track have all been dropped on digital platforms. And it is no surprise that the nostalgia around Nayagan, produced by Muktha Srinivasan, has peaked. Based on the life of Bombay underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar and equally inspired by The Godfather, Mani Ratnam scripted a tale that resonates even today.

Kamal dished out a bravura performance, which got him the National Award for Best Actor. P. C. Sreeram’s outstanding cinematography, Ilaiyaraaja’s soulful music, and fine acting by the entire crew meant that a classic was born. Released at Mount Road’s Anand and other theatres, Nayagan grew in stature.

The world of crime, the grey shades in life, the moral ambiguity over right and wrong, were all dealt with. The movie threw up enough fodder for pop-culture and the question raised in the poignant climax, “neenga nallavara kettavara?” (are you a good man or a bad man), is part of folklore.

Mani Ratnam had galloped into the big league with this film. It was a confluence of two men with similar artistic drive and aesthetic sensibilities, as he and Kamal forged a bond. It was an equation that got further strengthened when the ace director married Kamal’s niece, fine actress and director Suhasini.

Nayagan tore apart boundaries. Back in high schools and colleges then, there was a sense of awe over the use of Tamil expletives in this film, which was raw and real. A brothel, hitherto taboo in films, was shown and it reiterated that every human being has a certain dignity.

The songs were instant hits and gained an afterlife. The terrific, ‘Thenpandi cheemayile’, is a number that most fans hum even today. Author Manu Joseph remembered playing it on loop as he wrote his book The Illicit Happiness of Other People. Recently, when singer T.M. Krishna and stand-up artiste Alexander Babu dropped into The Hindu office, the duo belted out the ‘boat-song’ or ‘Nila adhu vanathumele’ from Nayagan. And as Thug Life gears up for a June 5 release, it is bound to draw comparisons with Nayagan.