Thug Life Trailer: Disappointment for Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam Fans?

Cinema fans across South India are eagerly anticipating the combination of Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam. They have made their own marks in South Indian cinema history by teaming up for Naayagan (Nayakudu). So, when Kamal Haasan announced that he was finally teaming up with Mani Ratnam, expectations skyrocketed.

That creative glimpse for announcing the film, the wedding song that was released, the teaser that showed a young Kamal Haasan with that Nayagan reference intact—everything only added to the hype, and movie buffs were waiting for the trailer to drop, and finally the team had released the trailer on YouTube.

Kamal Haasan, who is known to do something new with every single film, has called up all the influencers present for an interaction to promote his movie. It was during this event that they launched the trailer for the film, and like every Mani Ratnam movie, the Thug Life trailer ensures that it reveals as little as possible.

Mani Ratnam relies on subtlety when it comes to cutting his trailers. This has been the case for a long time, and he stuck to the same with Thug Life. Throughout the trailer, Kamal Haasan had very little dialogue and was in excellent form as Rangaraya Sakthivel Nayakar. Furthermore, in an era where every film is putting out trailers that last more than three minutes, Mani Ratnam sticks to a crisp and short two-minute format for Thug Life, and the result is, well, a bit polarizing.

The story is clear. Kamal Haasan adopts Amar (Silambarasan TR) for saving his life, and the duo become inseparable. Kamal is a gangster that announces that Silambarasan, his son, will be in charge of all the activities from the outside. The move obviously doesn't go well with some trusted people in Kamal's gang.

Furthermore, there is an incident that separates, or rather divides, the father-son duo, and in the end there is a big fight that's planned between Kamal and Silambarasan. This type of dialogue is not new to Tamil or, for that matter, South Indian cinema. How Mani Ratnam presents Kamal Haasan after a gap of forty years, and did he resort to the new-age filmmakers' style of using references for instant claps from the auditorium? These are the questions that are lurking around fans' heads while watching the Thug Life trailer.

Surely, Mani Ratnam has a lot in store that he wants the audiences to witness directly on the big screen, but maybe he should have shown more—especially the action sequences. Every big-budget film of late has worked mainly because of action, and if one takes a look at Thug Life's trailer, the drama is in perfect balance with the action, which is typical of a Mani Ratnam movie.

But had Mani Ratnam shown a bit more of how he showcased Kamal Haasan, it would have been even more impactful, as neutral audiences might not be completely moved by Thug Life's trailer. However, expectations from this combination alone are enough to drive audiences to the theaters.

Thug Life releases on June 5th, 2025.