"Had Sandeep Reddy Vanga written the romantic relationships of Thug Life, social media would have had a field day talking about its regressive undertones," wrote Anmol Jamwal, commenting on the nature of the relationship between a young Trisha Krishnan character and an old Kamal Haasan character in Thug Life. The allegation is understandable, considering that most reviews blasted Ranbir Kapoor's Animal when it was released in 2023. Shouldn't a similar level of criticism be levelled against Thug Life? Should the Kamal Haasan movie be excused just because it is directed by an auteur like Mani Ratnam?

Many cinephiles opine that the films of Mani Ratnam have had problematic male characters. "There are very few movies where Mani Ratnam’s male protagonists weren’t toxic. Even though Arjun Reddy and Karthi's Kaatru Veliyidayi released in the same year, and were pretty much the same morality-wise, only the latter was looked upon very objectively," wrote Raymond, a social media user. But this is only partially correct. Many reviewers lashed out at the Karthi-Aditi Rao Hydari film. One film critic even refused to review it, saying that it was too regressive for his sensibilities. The Telugu-dubbed version was titled Cheliyaa.

But Vanga needn't be brought into the picture. "You can call out the regressive narrative of the romance in Thug Life without holding up your Vanga sandwich board. You would have masked the whataboutery much better," argues an X user.