Mani Ratnam – The Film maker !!

   I was not sure of writing a blog of my favorite director but upon watching Mani ratnam’s interview with Gowtham Vasudev menon which I totally loved I realized I should write one. The best part of the interview was ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ was discussed only for few minutes and the entire conversation was regarding the working style of the legend. Internet is an easily accessible medium and all it takes to review a film is someone has to tape your talking and then you can post the video in Internet and create a sensation. These guys on top of not having Filmy qualification they hardly know anything about movie making process, logistics of film making, movie distribution, etc., They just feel they are pretty good critics since their videos have garnered more views. Some of the people who reviewed the film in Internet are pathetic. Anyway these days all of us including me categorize a film saying its either ‘fast paced’ or ‘slow screenplay’ – this is where the problem starts. We have to see each film as a distinct film and not treat all films in a same way. I recently watched ‘Kodi’ and ‘Singam 3’ and though I liked these two movies to some extent comparing these two with Mani ratnam movie is a criminal mistake. Our mind is just polluted and we expect movies to have either edge of the seat thriller or a story which unfolds faster. All coffee lovers know that coffee taste so good once we boil the milk for few minutes but we always take the route to boil the milk in microwave and compromise our taste buds – reason is we want to have the coffee faster. My wife says whenever I talk I always bring a food comparison and now realize how true that statement was !!

    Let me just briefly walk you through some of the subjects Mani Ratnam dealt in his films – friction between the newly wed couple (Mouvna Raagam), Underworld don (Nayagan), story of step brothers (Agni Nakshathiram), story of couple both suffering from terminal illness (Geethanjali), story of autistic child and the plight of the parents amidst cruel face of society (Anjali), adaptation of Mahabaratha (Thalapathy), romantic love story with terrorism as background (Roja), Tamil nadu politics in a nutshell (Iruvar), Love story between hindu and muslim with Bombay riots as background (Bombay), Post marital relationships (Alaipayuthey), Story and agony of srikankan tamils to meet their near and dear ones (Kannathil muthamittal), Youth in politics (Ayudha eluthu), Biography of Indian business legend (Guru), Adaptation of Ramayana (Raavan), reflection of modern urban youth vs old traditional values (O kadal kanmani) and once again a romantic love story between the lead pair who are opposite in nature (Kaatru Veliyidai). I strongly believe for a movie to be considered good then the heroine character has to be good – Divya in Mouvna Raagam, Roja in Roja, Shaila Banu in Bombay, Kalpana in Iruvar, Shakthi in Alaipayuthey, Indira in Kannathil Muthamittal, Tara in OK Kanmani and Dr.Leela in Kaatru Veliyidai are just etched in my memory. He is one director who shows girls as independent, bold, intelligent and garrulous. Can we imagine a film maker who has touched so many sensitive topics in celluloid? To handle these topics with brilliant characterizations, technical finesse, articulate craftmanship and not to forget realism deserves huge round of applause. Ofcourse celluloid demands fantasy elements and to deliver quality films laced with great music, mind blowing cinematography one has to master the art very well and only a top notch individual can do that which according to me is Mani ratnam. 

Realism: Let me just go over few scenes from his classics which depicts realism to the core.

Mouvna Raagam: Now how many of us know that the home in Delhi (one Mohan lives) shown in Mouvna Raagam was actually in Madras. That is where a film maker comes into picture – right from surroundings, sounds, people everything has to have a realistic touch as per the narration of the movie. I love one of the scene in which Revathy stops Mohan from sipping a coffee saying sugar was not added to it assuming he won’t drink and she can use the coffee later in the day. Also one other scene in second half where Revathy rushes to open the door to greet his parents she would be with Idly batter all over her hand. These small details just blends so well into the narrative. I can keep on talking about this movie but on a lighter note I always had this dream before marriage to watch my favorite movie along with my wife post marriage, only to realize Minu slept half way through. Next day Minu said it’s a good movie but not as good as I portray ….Hmm....Minu watches movie by forwarding many scenes whereas I like to watch movies from Title card rolling ....

Roja: Arvind samy takes his newly wed wife to introduce to his Chief and the chief once realizing it’s a tamil girl connects with her so much and the camera angle is tilted to show a Tamil Murugan calendar in the backdrop ….automatically the audience relates to the narration and not to forget Chief requesting Paal paniyaram to Madhu bala in the end ….I am just trying to be myself ..

Agni Nakshathiram: Vijayakumar often swaps names between Ashok and Gowtham which are just instinct gestures by Vijayakumar but it adds so much to the intensity of the movie as both the brothers share the same biological father.

Alai Payuthey: A typical middle class scene when Shalini and her sister have breakfast where mom complains about hair not tied, daughter complains about upma being the routine breakfast and the best was mom tying a thread around Shalini’s hand for her to do the exams well. These are pure slice of life is an Indian household. Talking about this movie I love the house in which Maddy and Shalini stay with just brick and cement (without being painted) only to realize later when I bought my home that I do not even have control to change the place of my Microwave. Reality sucks !!

Once audience able to relate the narrative in celluloid they get connected to the movie. But obviously movies do need fantasy and that is where songs come into picture. Practically we buy few sets of clothes in a calendar year but in movies we love to see hero and heroine keep changing dresses, we may not be able to go to places shown in the movie and hence audience enjoy those during song sequences.

King of Romance: For a hard core Mani Ratnam fan it is easy to point out that he is king of romance as you can see pretty much all the movies there is a strong dosage of romance. Now for someone who is 60+ in India to deal with romance the extent Mani Ratnam has explored shows he must have done an extensive thesis on ‘Love and relationships’. He is one film maker who does not believe in skin show and always differentiates between lust and love– there is one scene in Roja where by mistake Arvind swamy would happen to tear the blouse of Madhubala, had it been other directors they would have asked music director to make the scene look sensuous by some crap BGM score instead Arvind samy says ‘Sorry …it happened by mistake’. People critisize ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ so much but if you look deeper the movie deals with relationships and difference of opinion between the lead pair. In real life it is the small incidents which creates misunderstanding between couples and that is portrayed beautifully in the movie. Movies like Mouvna Raagam and Alaipayuthey says love after marriage is the true one, Anjali and Kannathil Muthamittal shows love between the couple keeping children in background, Rajini marries a widower in Thalapathy so on and so forth. Love is always shown with lot of dignity and Mani Ratnam extracts the best out of the actors.

Break the stereotypes: Running time of his movies vary by each movie, number of songs vary per movie, heroine may have kids if the story demands, close up shots are plenty if that is necessary for the movie, on board an actor quite opposite to his nature like the RJ Balaji character in Kaatru Veliyidai, shoot songs in India and still show the aesthetics and talk less about his movies instead have his movies do the talking

    Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam aka Mani Ratnam is a film personality we should all celebrate. Given his recognition any actor in India will be willing to work under his direction knowing he is a low pay master. Sometimes people like Mani Ratnam are forced to make movies in many languages across same time to have pan India release but due to availability of dates with lead actors and other logistics challenges they had to compromise on Nativity as they have to wrap up the shoot. Obviously his movies in 80’s and 90’s are no match to his current films but nevertheless he is still one of the best film makers in the country. Now makers have tough time to defend one scene which sensors believe may be controversial but here is one man who has touches many sensitive subjects in the likes of religion, love, relationships, political battle, disabled kid etc., and still came out in flying colors. He would have made many movies and increased his bank balance but he did not believe in number game. He is inspiration to current crop of directors and his movies act as a dictionary to them. Through this blog I have paid my tribute to my favorite director in Kollywood – Mani Ratnam