Mani Ratnam: A Profile -Part1

Introduction
If there is any one in the history of Indian film industry who delivered crowd pleasing films with out going down on aesthetics and artistic values, only one name comes to mind – Mani Ratnam.

The name, Mani Ratnam needs no introduction. He is the man behind the films like ‘Nayakan’ – one of the two Indian films to be listed in top 100 films of the world, ‘Mouna Ragam’, ‘Agni Nachatram’, ‘Dalapati’, ‘Yuva’, ‘Dil Se’ and most recently ‘Guru’.

Mani Ratnam was born on June 2nd, 1956 in the temple town of Madurai in Tamilnadu. Films were his every day’s cup of tea. Being born in to a family of film producers and distributors (father “Venus” Gopalratnam was a producer and brother G Venkateswaran was a film distributor), Mani Ratnam plunged into the world of cinema immediately after his graduation.

From his first film “Pallavi Anupallavi” to his latest Bollywood ventures (“Yuva
“, “Guru”) his films always dealt with realistic and contemporary issues and yet the stories were packaged in a commercial format. Not many of the Indian film makers, from the past or the present, showed this amazing balance between art and commerce like Mani Ratnam did.

Keeping aside the so called ‘art film directors’ like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, John Abraham, Shyam Bengal and others alike, there are not many of the Indian mainstream directors can be called an ‘auteur’. Mani Ratnam bears an exception to this rule. Film after film, his aesthetics and artistic vision showed no signs of compromise, and yet most his films are crowd pleasers and they offer something for every class of audience. His films always portrayed characters with a character. All of his characters are straight out of the real life and his stories are logical, relevant and contextual to the society.

Films:

Pallavi AnuPallavi — the song of Life

At 27, Mani Ratnam made his debut feature “Pallavi Anupallavi”, a Kannada film starring Anil Kapoor and Lakshmi and Kiran Vairale.

Anil Kapoor plays the role of Vijay whose life is torn between two women, Madhu (Kiran Vairale) and Anu (Lakshmi). Having promised his love for Madhu, Vijay finds himself in the web of a relationship with Anu, an older woman separated from her husband. In this film Mani dealt with issues like adultery, divorce, love and friendship and the blurred line that separates them. The earthly colours, realistic characters, actors sans makeup and most of his trade mark cinematic brilliance can be seen, though in a raw format, in this film.

The innovation in his narrative structure is the most striking aspect of this film. In south Indian classical music Pallavi is the main stanza of a song and anupallavi is the sub-main stanza of a song. By choosing two stories of Vijay, one in love with Madhu and the other with Anu, Mani definitely had an innovative scheme for his debut film.

For reasons unknown this ‘song of life’ couldn’t find many hearers and was a big disappointment at the box office. It took another three films and three years for the audience to accept the master of the craft (art).

Mani Ratnam’s selection of Ilayaraja for music and Balu Mahendran for cinematography clearly shows his innate taste for good music and visuals. No wonder that his films always featured a scintillating music track and amazing visuals.

“Pallavi Anupallvi” won the best screenplay award at the Kannada State film awards. This film was later dubbed in to Tamil under the title “Priya O Priya”.

Unaru — Feelings
After his debut venture ‘Pallavi Anupallavi’ in Kannada, Mani Ratnam went on to make his next film in Malayalam with Mohanlal in the lead role.

Unaru is the story of a man who rejects to belong. This movie tried to catch a glimpse of the economic and social situation of Kerala of those days. Mohanlal arrives in a town and he finds it strange when tea vendor rejects to serve him tea, reason? Mohanlal is not associated to any political party and rejects to belong to any. In a state where you need to belong to a trade union to get a job, Mohanlal plays the role of an unemployed youth struggling find an identity beyond the trade unions and political parties.

This was the only Malayalam film Mani Ratnam has directed. Like his first film, this too had not done well at the box office.

His collaboration with Ilayaraja continued in this film too. Ramachandra Babu, elder brother of Ravi K Chandran, was the man behind the camera for this film.

Pagal Nilavu – Clouded talent

The third film from Mani Ratnam, ‘Pagal Nilavu’, was finally in Tamil. After a failure in Kannada and a failure in Malayalam, Mani Ratnam delivered yet another failure with this Tamil film.

‘Pagal Nilavu’ featured Satyaraj and Murali apart from a huge star cast like Sarath Babu, Radhika, Revathi and others. This film is love story set in the backdrop of crime drama.

Devarajan (Satyaraj) is the cold-blooded village crime lord. Peter (Sarath Babu) is the sincere police inspector who boldly hit at the illegal activities of Devarajan. Selvam (Murali) is the trustworthy henchman of Devarajan. Jyoti (Revati), the sister of Peter falls in love with Selvam. The multi dimensional drama that burst out among these four characters forms the core of this film.

Mani Ratnam, whose story lines, mostly, are simple, has chosen here a strapping story with a many sub plots. He even had a comedy track which is very unusual of his style of filmmaking. The only other Mani Ratnam film which had a detached comedy track is ‘Geetanjali’.

The screenplay of this film is at times lagging and clichéd. Like his first two films, this film too did not do well at the box office but the capacity was clear and sound. This film along with his two previous films served as a training ground for his subsequent films.

The role of Satyaraj draws an enormous inspiration from Godfather. It is this theme that’s later developed in to full-scale with ‘Nayakan’. The scenes between Murali and Revati form a kind of baseline for ‘Mouna Ragam’.

Mani Ratnam’s success collaboration with Ilayaraja continued and this time they delivered a massive hit in terms of music. The songs from this film are still fresh and the song ‘Poomaalaye’ is one of Ilayaraja’s all time best. Ramachandra Babu from ‘Unaru’ provided the cinematography for this film.

Idhaya Kovil – Straight from the heart

After three successive failures Mani Ratnam has delivered a moderate success with his fourth film ‘Idhaya Kovil’.

‘Idhaya Kovil’ is a very original offering from Mani Ratnam. It takes an artist to understand the mind of another artist and Mani Ratnam successfully captured the trauma of a singer (Mohan). Mohan comes to the city and succeeds in a big way but the loss of his love makes him an errant. Sisters in real life, Ambika and Radha play the roles of the women in the life of Mohan.

The trauma of an artist loosing his inspiration was captured well and though there are numerous films with such storylines, ‘Idhaya Kovil’ comes straight from the heart and it is original. It is difficult to compare this film with his subsequent films or the preceding film. This film was neither a success nor a failure but falls some where in the middle. It is surely not a classic but is surely bearable.

Mani Ratnam’s uncanny ability to extract from the actors is the consistent aspect of all his films. Even this film boasts a good set of acting skills from Mohan, Ambika and Radha.

Mani Ratnam and Ilayaraja collaboration delivered another musical hit with this film.

Mouna Ragam – Suddenly somebody

When Mouna Ragam was released in 1986 it took the Tamil film industry by storm and when it was dubbed into Telugu with the same title it was an instantaneous hit. The world sat up and took notice of Mani Ratnam and form then on there was no looking back for him.

After four years of filmmaking experience and four failures weighing heavily on his back Mani Ratnam collaborated with Ilayaraja for music, PC Sriram for cinematography and seasoned actors, mostly from his previous films, to deliver a film of an amazing quality and talent.

Hailed as one of the landmark films of Tamil cinema, at once Mani Ratnam was hailed as a master filmmaker and the film itself set a standard for quality cinema.

Divya (Revati) complies with the middle class mindset and family pressures and gets married to Chandrakumar (Mohan), a compassionate and pleasant manager from Delhi. The marriage between them never takes off; Reason? Divya has a past and she is unable to come over it. The troubled marriage ends in filing for divorce but they fail to attain one because, the law stipulates a minimum one year of marital life before divorce. The lives of these people who live separate and distant lives under the same roof occupy the rest of the film.

What sets this film apart from his previous films is the screenplay. The story of the film as such is not anything phenomenal than the stories of the other four films. The screenplay, the portrayal of the characters, the music, acting, cinematography and every other technical department came together to deliver this landmark film. The scintillating music track by maestro Ilayaraja is another major asset of the film.

One cannot deny that the film borrowed many ideas from another Tamil film Nenjathai Killathe which has an almost similar theme and familiar scenes. The backdrops of both the stories are set in a different city (Delhi in Mouna Ragam and Calcutta in Nenjathai Killathe). The climax in both the films takes place at a similar location (Airport in Nenjathai Killathe and Train station in Mouna Ragam). One scene that’s common in both these films is the scene where the lead actor comes home to find the lead actress sleeping on the couch shivering and he covers up her with a blanket. It cannot be a coincidence but at the same time it is difficult to write off a genius like Mani Ratnam as a copy cat.

Mouna Ragam was remade in to Kasak in Hindi. The film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Hai Sanam’ by Sanjay Leela Bhansali bears a similar storyline.

Nayakan – no looking back

Nayakan is the story of Velu Naicker (Kamal Hassan). As a boy Velu kills the police who killed his father. Fearing the police Velu runs away to Bombay. Initially he embraces a life of drug peddling and by killing a notorious police officer (Pradeep Sakti) he raises to the status of the hero of the slums. The rest of the story is about the raise of Velu as the don of Mumbai mafia.

The characterisation, the story line, acting of the film ‘Nayakan’ are very much similar to Godfather but it is unique and stands out as an exemplary piece of perfect filmmaking. It is not only from Godfather, but also from another gangster epic, ‘Once upon a time in America’, that Mani Ratnam borrowed the ideas for this film. It is simple to say that Mani Ratnam copied/borrowed ideas but it is through his genuine artistic vision that he produced a brilliant piece Indian cinema.

Although, this film does not enquire into the minds of criminals and nature of power and its politics but it does offer a great insight into the life of a gangster boss. Many a films dealt with the similar theme and no Indian film can even come close to this film.

Nayakan, although is based on Godfather, it doesn’t fake like Ram Gopal Varma does in Sarkar (Another remake of Godfather). One cannot say that Nayakan is better than Coppola’s Godfather but its no mean feat for an Indian director, with just one hit film to cling to, to make a film which stood on par with the original. Songs which form an undeniable part of Indian mainstream cinema were used, not as hero/heroine’s escape to fantasy lands, but as an inevitable part of the cinema experience. This was the major asset of Mani Ratnam’s films. He continued to use songs (mostly) as another narrative device to progress the story but just blend into the narrative.

Kamal Hassan, who has established himself as an actor capable of portraying diversified roles, played the role of Velu Naicker with utmost authenticity. He won his second national award for his depiction of Velu Naicker’s role in the film. For Ilayaraja it was his 400th film and indeed it featured a soundtrack and background music that was considered as a milestone in his career. P C Sriram added a gritty realism to Mani Ratnam’s vision through his brilliant visuals. The art direction by Thota Tarani is flawless and adds to the naturalistic vision of Mani Ratnam. Thota Tarani’s art work in recreating the Dharavi slums of Bombay in Madras has brought him the national award for best art direction.

Nayakan is one of the only three Indian films listed in all-time 100 best films and it is a very rare honour for an Indian film.

Nayakan was later remade into ‘Dayavan’ in Hindi.

Agni Nachatiram –slick pop flick

After the path breaking success of his two earlier films, Mouna Ragam and Nayakan, Mani Ratnam delivered a pure entertainer in the popular format with Agni Nachatiram.

Agni Nachatiram is the story of two half-brothers and their rivalry. Gautam (Prabhu) is the legitimate son of Viswanath, a law enforcement officer. Ashok (Karthik) is also the son of Viswanath but a by-product of an illicit relationship. The film is about the violent confrontations of these half-brothers and how they come together, in the end, to save the life of their father is the rest of the story.

Agni Nachatiram is known for its amazing music tracks and the pop-video like look of the film. Glossy cinematography, explicit stylisation, remarkable lighting, added to the stylistic look of the film and Mani Ratnam gave a taster for the audience of late 80’s, a taste of M-TV like visually stylish videos.

Ilayaraja and PC Sriram collaborated once again with Mani Ratnam for this film and this film stands out as a great technical achievement in terms of music, editing and cinematography. This film boasts one of the amazing set of music tracks and even today the songs from this film are a huge hit. The tracks ‘Thoongatha Vizhigal’ in the raga ‘Amritavarshini’ and ‘ninu kori varnam’ in the raga ‘Mohanam’ are true melodies and a class apart.

The climax scene of this film is a straight life from Godfather and it shows the impact of the western films on Mani Ratnam. This film was later remade into ‘Vansh’ in Hindi.

Anjali – Caution: Children at work

After three trend-setting films Mani Ratnam has established himself as one of the finest Indian filmmakers of those times. His next film Anjali was a film of unique vision and brought out a different facet of his talent, his apparent ease of handling child actors. Anjali is a film about kids, but not just for kids.

Raghuvaran and Revathi are happily married with two kids. The wife, Revati, believes that the child has died during the delivery. Raghuvaran hides the secret about their third child, who was born with severe learning difficulties. The peace at the home is disrupted when the little girl, Anjali, is brought back to their home.

Mani Ratnam’s deftness in handling a huge bunch of kids is what makes this film a near masterpiece. Loosely inspired by the book ‘Mr God, this is Anna’ and paying homage to the sci-fi films Star Wars and ET, Mani Ratnam has delivered a completely different film than his previous films. Mani Ratnam as usual adds his touch and the end result is beautiful film portraying the shaded emotions of a family dealing with a mentally disabled kid.

Prabhu plays the role of a criminal and the kids spy on him. This episode is similar to the film, ‘Whistle down the wind’ in which a bunch of kids take a criminal for God and help him by hiding him in barn. Some of the shots from his film, Geetanjali find references to this film.

Long before Sanjay Leela Bhansali made Black, Mani Ratnam made this film dealing with mental illness and it is Shalini, the girl who played the role of Anjali, who steals the show. Never before in Indian cinema was a film which had kids playing the main roles and no film can match the performances of these kids.

With this film Mani Ratnam has achieved a greater understanding of the film language and the technical aspects of filmmaking. Apart from the direction he was best known for getting the best out of the actors and for collaborating with the best technicians. All of his films boasted great cinematography, precise editing, impeccable set design, and great music. As usual Ilayaraja was at his best in this film and delivered scintillating music tracks and it was Madhu Ambat who provided the cinematography for this film.