Kamal Haasan and Trisha Krishnan are playing a gangster and a mistress, respectively, in Thug Life. Since the age gap between them is more than 30 years, Mani Ratnam's casting choice has been called into question.
When Ravi Teja romances actresses younger than him by 30 years (Sreeleela, for example), feminists blast him and Telugu cinema. Shouldn't they do the same in the case of Thug Life? Will these folks question Mani Ratnam and Kamal?
Casting a young woman opposite an aged male star is considered misogynistic. Is it misogyny if the young woman has been cast as a mistress opposite an aged male, as in the case of Thug Life? Should we consider the context before reading misogyny into all casting choices? As per some commentators, "casting a young woman as a mistress opposite an older man isn’t inherently misogynistic, provided she is not sexualized or given a role that has zero agency. "If the story justifies the dynamic—say, exploring power imbalances or complex relationships—and the female character is multidimensional, it’s less likely to be misogynistic. But if the casting choice perpetuates a pattern of older men with younger women as mere arm candy, it risks feeding into gendered power imbalances," says an author.
