It is hard to overstate the impact that Kamal Haasan, star of upcoming crime drama Thug Life directed by Mani Ratnam, has had upon South Asian cinema.
Haasan, 70, is considered one of the best and most versatile performers in the history of Indian cinema, having worked on movies in six languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali. And beyond acting, he's also the writer and director of five ambitiously mounted features, including the groundbreaking historical fiction Hey Ram (2000) and the spy action-thriller Vishwaroopam (2013).
Even two-time Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee has lauded Haasan's varied filmography and encyclopaedic knowledge of world cinema. Haasan himself, however, puts it more succinctly in conversation with The National: “I consider myself a child of cinema and no other institution.”
Thug Life, an Eid Al Adha release, is Haasan's second movie with Ratnam in 38 years – his last collaboration with him was the critically acclaimed Nayakan (1987). When asked what took them almost four decades to do another film together, Haasan says: “Situations in life can be complicated. And it's not for our lack of trying.”
Over the last 40 years, Haasan attempted to collaborate with Ratnam on multiple projects that either went unrealised or got repurposed. Ratnam's ambitious two-part historical drama Ponniyin Selvan, based on Kalki Krishnamurthy's 1955 novel of the same name, had been in the works since the 1980s. At that time, Haasan acquired adaptation rights to the novel, likely for himself to star. When the project finally released in 2022, Haasan served only as narrator.
“Often our own ambitions and expectations far exceeded the kind of financial backing available to realise our dreams,” Haasan says. “But this kind of obstacle also makes it the responsibility of the artist – the auteur – to continue to fight the good fight and reach the finish line.”
In Thug Life, Haasan plays gang leader Sakthivel, whose relationship with his adoptive son Amaran (Silambarasan TR) starts to unravel after an attempt is made on his life. Ratnam's last collaboration with Haasan followed a similar story – Nayakan chronicled the rise of Mumbai mobster Velu Naicker from the city's claustrophobic slums to head of a criminal syndicate.
“A lot of people warned us that we'd have to contend with the similarities between Thug Life and Nayakan,” Haasan says, “but here's my question to them: Why should we?”
If anything, in Haasan's view, age has allowed the duo to approach similar material with newfound maturity.
“Nayakan was made when we were practically young boys. Thug Life is made by us as men who have lived a life enough to take up the challenge and still come out strong.”
Thug Life marks Haasan's 234th film as an actor, and in the decades he has been active, he's taken up almost every challenge one can imagine and then some. He's tackled silent films with his comedy Pushpaka Vimana and did an Indian spin on Mrs Doubtfire in Chachi 420.
For Dasavatharam (2008), he took on 10 separate roles, including an old woman, a Punjabi pop star, a Japanese martial artist, a tailor with gigantism, a white CIA agent and – get this – then-president George W Bush. It might be easier to narrow down a role he hasn't played at this point.
For someone whose career has taken so many twists and turns, it's hard to imagine there's any challenge remaining on Haasan's bucket list. Which is why his primary ambition at this stage of his career is to lift up the next generation.
“I guess what's still left for me to do isn't much to do within the spectrum of acting as much as it is to foster and encourage newer voices in the industry, while also trying to run with them and learn from them for as long as our bodies can allow us,” says Haasan.
He cites the boundless energy of directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola as his inspiration. “I really admire how much Scorsese continues to contribute to the craft. But if he's not example enough, look at Coppola. People call Megalopolis indulgent. And if it is, so what?
“At my point in life, it's always motivating to see young-minded old men making the movie they want, without regrets, stamping their stories with their unique voice,” Haasan continues.
While some view generative AI as a threat to the next generation of creatives, Haasan is optimistic that the emerging technology will never replace human ingenuity.
“Young artists will create, and art by human beings and for human beings will live on. Maybe not in the way you and I think of how a story should be structured, but with the democratisation of art, anything can be an absorbing, cinematic narrative that will find its audience,” says Haasan.
Thug Life releases in cinemas across the UAE on June 5 in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi
