New Delhi, June 5 -- What a wonderful world it would be if Tamil and Telugu commercial directors could apply their considerable talents to telling concise, coherent stories. The bloat is out of control. I'm not just talking about the dozen retrofitted plots of Kalki 2898 AD or the maddening detours of Pushpa 2. Even smart, funny films like Jigarthanda DoubleX stretch their material unduly. I admit this isn't a widely held opinion. Audiences today clearly like the mess.

As luck would have it, the wrong director decided to simplify. Thug Life is Mani Ratnam at his most basic. This isn't to say he's made a bad film-it's just not the film you'd expect Ratnam, comfortably established as the preeminent popular director of the past 40 years, to...