Thug Life (Reimagined)

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Inspector Jaikumar (Ashok Selvan) is investigating the death of a high-profile corporate czar S. Gurumurthy (Samudrakani), who is the CXO of one of India’s largest, listed and reputed Real Estate companies and a key sponsor of IPL T20 Cricket, based out of Ghaziabad, NCR.

The upright executive, with no visible scars on his reputed corporate  career all along, is killed by torture, much to the surprise of the community at large. 

Little do people know that Gurumurthy had a shadow life too, acting as the hit-man of the company’s owners, by making gullible small-land owners to surrender their cultivable land for real estate development across Northern India.

Indrani (Trisha) runs the CSR arm of the company, which among other social initiatives also runs a school and a college, where the children of poor farmers are enrolled. Jaikumar & Indrani have a parallel love track going on, with their wedding solemnised. (Indrani had a past affair, btw!)

Jaikumar takes special interest in this case for three reasons – one that he himself is a Tamilian living in the NCR, Gurumurthy is also a Tamilian (from Tirunelveli) and thirdly, when the Police Department is under the view that extortion related crimes have come down significantly in NCR, this Robin-hood-style attack seems to be an aberration.



At a roadside liquor-shop, during his investigation in plain clothes, he overhears a localite saying that “Aiyah” is coming home for a grand wedding of his foster son, Amar (Silambarasan). 


Amar is the son of Selvam (Janagaraj), a one-time close confidante of Sakthivel “Velu Naicker”.  


When Jaikumar digs deep, he realises that after the court verdict, when Velu Bhai was shot dead by Ajit Kelkar (Tinnu Anand), he actually doesn’t die (if you watch Nayagan’s climax, you will see that he was not cremated). 


There was a last-minute rescue operation orchestrated by Inspector ACP Patil (Nasser), husband of Charumathi (Karthika), daughter of Naicker.



ACP Patil ensures that Naicker is safely sent to Tirunelveli (from where he originally hails) and the world is let known that he has been cremated (a la Manick Baasaha).


After getting cured, Velu Bhai goes on a solo trip to the Himalayas and finds solace in a fellow traveller Jeeva (Abhirami). 


Their love is not skin deep, but they are more than “friends with benefits” as Jeeva does not believe in the formal institution of marriage and chooses a live-in relationship, with her strong rooted belief in rationalism and self-respect.


Amar’s wedding is a big thing and all the extended family members are expected to arrive in Ghaziabad. Selvam & Iyer (Delhi Ganesh) are no more due to health-related issues. Amar’s bride is Iyer’s daughter Chandra (Aishwarya Lakshmi). 



That’s when Inspector Jaikumar, son of ACP Patil, realises that the one behind Gurumurthy’s death is Amar, who has been orchestrating the extortion racket of powerful and rich builders in NCR. Jai accosts his parents, who are living in a retirement community in Coimbatore now and understands the past.


After Sakthivel “Velu” Naicker’s purported death, the entire clan moved to NCR to start a new life. But then, old habits die hard, after all.


Inspector Jaikumar discovers an interesting pattern – the money extorted from the builders does not go behind Jaipur-marble styled bungalows in Chattarpur or Meerut, rather used for buying Ambulances, to run hospitals, to offer welfare schemes for Gig workers and solemnise weddings for the poor and needy. 



Amar is following the same play book as his uncle Velu Naicker. 


When Indrani gets to know Amar’s history and backstory and why he killed Gurumurthy (a short and interesting flashback here), she relinquishes her love for him and also leaves her job at the Real Estate corporate house.


Now that the real estate mafia is baffled by the death of Gurumurthy, they decide to go against Amar and decide to kill him right after he gets married, at the same dias.



Kanjirapally Pathrose (Joju George), who is also from Tirunelveli decides to settle scores with a double whammy – his father Durai (Vijayan) was also killed by Velu Naicker due to a land dispute in Dharavi, Mumbai. 


When he smells that Naicker is back in town for Amar’s wedding, he is too excited to smell blood. Jaikumar is on a rescue mission as well to save his grandfather. 


What happens eventually to Amar and Velu Bhai is the climax.



PS: this is an honest tribute to the brilliant art of story writing, story telling, screenplay and direction by Your’s Truly. I have no formal background in the field of cinema, rather just an enthusiast having grown watching thespians and legends of film-making. 


No offence of any sort to anyone recorded. No animals were harmed while writing this article (sic). Smoking Kills. liquor consumption is injurious to health. don’t drink and drive. 

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