Readers Write In #812: Thug Light

By Karthik Amarnath

All ye fine people of this blog who call yourselves fans of Mani Ratnam and yet unabashedly disliked Thug Life, I only have one question for you. Where’s the loyalty, folks? Don’t the hours and hours of watching and rewatching his movies mean anything? 

And you, you, you, that guy, that guy who spent hours talking to Mani and even wrote that book..whatchamacallit…Condensations with…Commiserations with....Complications with..? yeah whatever…Didn’t you write “How do you say no to the man who made Nayakan?” Well, the man who made Nayakan has now made a film with the star of Nayakan. That after thirty seven years! And what did you do? From that Ambi payyan who couldn’t say no, you now became the cool bro who says uhhnn….. what’s that word….Underwhelmed? Underwhelmed, by the way, is a lot worse, a whole lot worse than saying no. 

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Sad. Sad.

You know when I last felt this sad? Three weeks ago, when I graded my class final exams. Hours and hours of pouring my heart out for every lecture, every assignment, every office hour, and what do I get. Even the brilliant first bencher whose wide eyed curiosity alone would make up for all the groans and yawns, he turns in a paper that left me uhn, uhnn..… what’s that word again….. underwhelmed! 

Let me say this. I am not that professor who’s always at meetings complaining about “all the darned kids these days.” I’m the guy who goes back to my notes, revises them, sees whats exciting today, understand where students are today, try to meet them half-way. If not half way, then three-quarters, or even seven-eights, if thats what it takes. There was a time I used to give 10 questions in an exam. Then it became seven. Then five. Now I give three. Just three. Sure, there’s going to be some sub-plots, I mean, sub-parts. After all it’s a three hour movie, I mean, exam. You’d think that should do the trick. But no. By the time kids get to the third act, apparently they’ve already given up. 

So you know what I do now? I let them have cheat sheets. It used to be one sheet. Then it became two. And now it’s three. After all, kids shouldnt be expected to remember the equations for stochastic gradient descent and matrix factorization and complementary slackness and principal component projection and all that. And we best just ignore the fact that you can derive any equation if you want, especially if you paid attention, and put some thought, and there’s enough time to think given its a three hour movie exam, and whatever, OK, whatever…. enough about my work life. I want to talk about Thug Life! 

In case it wasn’t already obvious, I loved it. Literally, Spiritually, Geometrically, Atmospherically. I loved it. 

Now for those of you who didn’t, here’s what I am going to do. I’m going to give you a cheat sheet. Or three. Or five.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THUG LIFE

#1: Its literally there in the name(s): Thug Life

Dont people read anymore? Thug and life are two words. Two. different. words. Thug Life has two. different. worlds. One is the world of people who want to have a life. Their clothes are loose fitting, hair unkempt, to let all the randomness of life fill them. The other is the world of people who fight to survive, aka thugs. They have cleanly combed hair, and wear tight chested clothes, as though one wrong fold could kill them.  Velu Nayakan, once a little boy who wore a loose fitting banyan, just wanted a life but the world turned him into a thug, the OG thug. But now we have Vinveli Nayagan, a space-age thug, and he wants to have both. He could have just had a life aka Jeeva, but no, he still went after the thrill of meeting Death in different forms, and a bar dancer who had a different name every day. Are you still wondering why he keeps playing the name calling game with her? As to what they do together, as colorfully described by Pechiamma, isnt that often compared to the thrill of dying and being reborn?

#2: Eye in the sky: It’s a bird, a plane, it’s the Lightning Queen

The bar dancer does have a real name. One completely apt for although never used by the space thug. Indrani, named after the God of lightning. (Details about God are in cheat sheet #4). What’s lightning— just brightened short bursts of light that shock you and disappear instantly although you can feel its effects even after. Like an orgasm, or like a near death experience. Lightning only shows up in the night. Like a bar dancer. Or like the moon. Like Chandra, the moon who could have lit up Amaran’s dark times. Now ask yourself why Amaran who was denied moonlight was so drawn to Ms. lightning, and why he always called her by her real name?

#3: Its basic geometry

If you’ve never taken a grade-level math class, I’m afraid Mani Ratnam movies are not for you. A Mani movie with no parallels is like…uhm…uhm…a movie made by someone else. Remember Kundavai and Nandini each walking around with a sword to Vandiyathevan’s neck in PS-2, and remember that they were both disarmed by him. If you’re the kind who asks why did Kundavai have to go through all that drama when dancing to a dream song in Aga Naga would have done just fine, well then, go take a…geometry class.

The parallel lines in Thug Life are between two Amarans. One is an “Amaran” who just doesn’t die, and the other is just named Amaran. When one keeps himself busy dying “little deaths” in jail with his Lightning Queen, the other would rather make a deal to remove the biggest threat to their lives (and not have to cheat Death any more). They’re both raised by “elder brothers.” They both push their “elder brothers” off railings. The “Amaran” is on a beach going after his life/wife that’s forgotten him while the one named Amaran is on a beach asking to wed the lightning queen who doesn’t quite embrace him. (She in fact keeps talking past him) Are you still surprised that a life of living dangerously does not embrace him either?

#4: God, it’s so basic!

You know how people complain that they’re done with predictable films. Apparently these days everyone wants real twists (as if back in the day, we only wanted the Anbe Vaa song). Anyway, let me take you to a scene where the one named Amaran waits outside the temple while the Alwarpet “Amaran” prays inside for forgiveness. Is there a bigger twist than a Kamal Hassan character in a Mani Ratnam movie believing in the OG Andavar?

And he’s not just any believer. He’s the guy who will travel to the heights of Mount Kailash and absolve himself of all his sins (btw, if you didnt catch him folding his hands, you need to keep your phone on sleep mode). And his sins do get absolved. Just as he rises slowly from the icy cold depths of having been betrayed by his brethren, and takes a long hard road to absolution at the abode of Lord Shiva, his wife has been saved by a certain Shiva Raja in a near death experience. And the daughter who had once miscarried could now have a child. The Alwarpet Andavar who sinned for survival and some for pleasure is reborn as an avenging avatar of the immortal Bodhidharma. (While Mr. Atman continued to be the atheist)

#5: Have you been sleeping??

I often ask obvious questions in class to see who’s been sleeping. So, here’s one. What’s common to Thenpandi Cheemayile, Chinna Thayaval, and Anju Vanna Poove? Yes, they’re lullabies. And then? Well they’re lullabies in Mani movies with big stars. Sure, and then? They’re lullabies in Mani movies with big stars playing lawless characters. Yes, yes, and what else? They’re lullabies in Mani movies with big stars playing lawless characters who grew up without their parents. Excellent!

Anju Vanna Poove is very conspicuously used in Thug Life to call back to the parental love that Amaran lost. Just as Thenpandi was used as a song of comfort during the dark times of Velu Nayakan, and Chinna Thayaval for Surya. All their endings reunite them with that lost parent, that lost life. In Thug Life, it’s not just the song, there’s the location, and there’s that chalk outline of Amaran’s father. Now think about the position we see Amaran in when he finally meets Chandra. 

Ok, so now, the enthu cutlets among you are going to throw me a gotcha— But what about Rangaraya Shaktivel? Didnt he lose his parents too? How come he doesn’t get to “reunite” with them? Aha! 

Ok, ok, you got me there, but let me ask you this— who’s that woman, that only woman who has slapped him? Who’s that only woman who calls him “Dei Shaktivel!” When she says that aloud at the very end, who does she think she’s calling out to? A grown man? 

——-

You know, there are times I think I should do away with cheat sheets, and just be a stuffed shirt, a real thug, who’ll give the hardest tests, and laugh as my students struggle. Would do them well to learn some survival skills for when they go out to the real world. But then, you see them, and in your mind, you have that picture of kids in loose fitting shirts with all the room for hopes and dreams, and you hope in turn that there’s also room for what you have to offer. And there always is, and despite all the distractions we have stuffed ourselves tightly with, you try hard enough, there always is room for deeper engagement. 

But ask me again a few years from now, when our kids are looking for “prompt sheets” so they can CheatGPT their way through life, then I might just start shining some thug light.