Thugs (Jio Cinema)
Rating: ** ½
Sure, you have seen much better prison-escape dramas. But Thugs in Tamil directed by choreographer-turned-director Brinda is unusual for being an out-and-out action film directed by a woman.
The film conveys the musk of a masculine actioner with sweaty grimy prisoners fighting and squabbling with one another and finally planning a daredevilish escape which works only because Brinda brings her choreographic skills in the graphic often gruesome action scenes.
Thugs has a vast cast of cops and criminals. But the plot based on a Malayalam film Swathanthryam Ardharathriyil, eventually converges on two characters, the young protagonist Sethu who has landed in prison for an unintended crime of passion, and his cellmate Simha who we are told, is also an unintentional criminal.
This distinction between intentional and unintentional criminals, created in a cinema of certain kind to preserve an artificial moral ambiguity for the sake of melodrama, is highly dangerous.
No criminal kills without purpose unless warped in the head. We are supposed to feel sorry for Sethu and Durani because the former committed murder for love,and the latter has a wife whom it seems every male in town keeps ogling just because her husband is in prison.
Sethu and Durani must escape from prison for love and family.
Luckily for us and for the screenplay, the director doesn’t waste much time in whipping up a sympathy wave for the two heroes. There is a bustling sense of urgency and efficiency in the storytelling. No time is wasted in emotional pauses. It is all about catching the next action scene , even at the cost of continuity.
Not much to be said about the performances in an out-and-ouch actioner. But semi-newcomer Hridhu Haroon, seen last week in Santosh Sivan’s Mumbaikar , brings an innocence and gullibility to his character. He is the only actor who stands out. The rest of the characters all look and behave like junior artistes in a Ram Gopal Varma film.
The jungle outdoors and the cell interiors are well shot by cinematographer Priyesh Guruswamy. As for the editor Praveen Anthony, the only brief he seems to have been given is , ‘Make it fast.’
There is no pause for breath, no escape from the relentless action in this escape drama.
