Impact of Mani Ratnam
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Maruramu
(Hyderabad, India)
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Impact of Mani Ratnam
This post is all about my favorite director “MANI RATNAM.” The thought of writing about HIM on PFC came about a long time back, but I never had the guts to write on such a big platform, but the thought never left me. Anyways, as I posted a comment asking someone to do a write-up about Johnny Gaddaar’s music review, Oz asked me to send an article on that. So, this had me thinking why not post about something I am comfortable with and started to think why not write about Mani Ratnam. So, here I am fulfilling my urge writing about HIM. Lemme make me clear about one thing here, I am not an expert on filmmaking or technicalities of it except that I am a great fan of his like so many others here, I guess.
As Venkat profiled him sometime back in April and May, I am not going to go on those lines, but rather talk about the impact he had on the common man who don’t know anything about filmmaking. As slowly Mani Ratnam came into his own after a few initial hiccups and became one of the best, he became the talking point for a lot people in the streets and suddenly the regular moviegoers started talking about cinematography, camera angles, usage of lights, etc., etc., which were never used to be the case, when the usual norm then was to know whether the film is good or bad, hit or flop. People also started talking about cinematographers, choreographers, and other aspects of filmmaking personnel in detail. Now, coming to the dialogues part where the viewers till then were used to those lengthy dialogues, he just changed the way by conveying it through two or three simple words and making an impact on the audience. Just to cite an example, the mischievous dialogues by Karthik in Mouna Ragam, Girija and Nagarjuna in Mouna Ragam and the intense one liner from Kamal in Nayagan that became cult dialogues and imitated by the ordinary people in the streets. Oh! What an impact. Btw, I know he used a few scenes or dialogues of similar meaning from his earlier films into his later ones like for example “coffee drinking scene by Revathy and Karthik in a restaurant” in Mouna Ragam from Pallavi Anu Pallavi and another one from Pagal Nilavu into “Nayagan.”
Another example of impact, I remember arguing about “Iruvar” hours together with my friends where their POV’s were who would want to watch a political drama which is known to all at least in TamilNadu. That is the kind of passion he generated among the audience making them forget about their personal problems for a few hours and debating the pluses and minuses… those were the days and times… very nostalgic. I agree he has become commercial and lost his objective somewhat, but there used to be a time when the critical acclaim and commercial success came his way…and ohhhh what a deadly combination that was and one that was longed by the others in the industry.
Another thing he did was having item numbers in his films and bringing in not so successful stars from the Hindi film industry like Somy Ali, Sonali Bendre, Anu Aggarwal, etc….to dance for him. Is he the first one to start this trend of item numbers????
I have seen every film of his from his third film which is his first in Tamil, Pagal Nilavu, to Yuva first day, mostly second show. I did not watch Guru for obvious reasons. Other than that, what a body of work (I know few are inspired by some source or the other, but who doesn’t do that), what a man!!! I hope he doesn’t go the way others have gone before him and lose track. May HE deliver some more gems in the future.
Finally, a request!!!! As this is my first post here, I don’t know whether I made any sense or conveyed the purpose of the article, and also I know I have not written in a coherent structure, I have not talked about the merits and demerits of his films, I just talked about the impact he had on people. Please read it with kindness and post your comments whether I have struck a chord with you all on this one, if this gets published at all. Hope this gets published and encourage me to write more in the future as well.
Anurag Kashyap
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Anish Kuruvilla
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D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
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Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
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Maruramu – Great start to your writing here on PFC. Welcome!
Impact or no impact, I think we will go back to the mother of all discussions to say, where is real creativity in Mani Ratnam, atleast story wise. Brilliant visuals, mind-blowing music and pertinent issues make the movies exciting but stories… somewhere there is a lacking.
Nayakan and Sakhi probably stand out for some diverse story telling but almost all seem a copy or atleast the charecters seem continuation from what he first wrote when he started off.
Is there anything wrong with it, no – he is a filmaker and has absolute right to make what he is. I am audience and I have a few reservations…
Iruvur – brilliant, very good film for debates… impact on audience – nill(of whatever mainstream audience knows abt the film).
So is he good. YES! Will I remember him – yes… his charecters, stories, movies – do i carry them with me, nope!
Thanks Ravptor for ur encouraging words….
To each his own…But I did not get those obvious reasons why Maruramu missed Guru. Right from the time the titles roll(in the middle of Mayya Mayya when the audience least expect) to the scene in the railway station when Sujatha accompanies Guru to Mumbai; to Guru waiting to meet Mr. Contractor and instead meeting Manik Das Gupta, or the introduction of Shyam Saxena , the director keeps springing a surprise. The plot may not be unpredictable(it follows similar structure of Nayakan) but the treatment sure is.
And Ravptor, how do we judge impact on audiences? by its commercial performance? then this site should be passion for business and not pfc. If it is impact on you on a personal level, then again to each his own. Starting from Mounra Ragam, each and every film of Mani has had a huge impact on me…take a story spanning a lifetime like that of Nayakan, Iruvar and Guru and give it to any inferior filmmaker and you will know the difference. A filmmaker will always be in a confusion of what is to be told and what is to be left out in a story spanning a lifetime. He does not have the luxury of a Jeffery Archer to write 500 odd pages as screenplay. And this is where Mani scores, he is absolutely sure(or if there is a confusion, he is so skilled a film maker that it never shows on screen) of what he has to convey.
Anand, as it was abt Dhirubhai Ambani I didn’t want to watch Guru, but as a fan of Mani Ratnam I’ll watch it certainly someday….As far as my article goes, I was talking abt the impact, the influence, etc., but going by the Ravptor’s comment it seems like I failed to convey the real purpose of it or so it seems…
maruramu,the nagarjuna movie is geetanjali not mauna ragam;)
sorry aam junta, i didn’t proof read it be4 sending….anyways thx for pointing it out…
Maniratnam has been discussed a lot here on PFC and still continues! That guy is awesome no doubt. But his recent movies were all watered down versions of his previous movies. Guru lacked the punch that was in Nayakan, Yuva lacked the aggressiveness that was in Agninakshatram, Dil se lacked the emotion that was in Roja…
Even Bombay was not so effective. The only decent movie of Maniratnam in recent times was Kannathil Mutthamittal.
Well…As they say, as you grow old…the embers in your stomach cools down gradually…
i remember kannathil muthhamittal won national award for best music, so it was screened in delhi’s sirifort auditorium. i went to watch it but then realised that it was without subtitles, i thought i’ll spend five more minutes and then i’ll leave since am not going to understand anything but then i was comlpetely hooked to it and i still think that it was a beautiful film, just had a slight problem with the way it ends but otherwise i quite enjoyed it.
Guru is one film which I think is terrible in many ways. i found it quite disturbing and in a negative sense.
otherwise, somehow, i feel the way mani ratnam’s films used to be progressive and ahead of its time- in terms of treatment, thay are losing that quality. drastically.
That’s my fear too…
‘Guru’ was terrible. Like another nail in the coffin (’Yuva’ preceding). Couldn’t believe this was the same man who made ‘Iruvar’.
Machchar, It could also be because that the bar is continuously being raised for pathbreaking filmmakers and it is realistically not possible to meet expectations. I mean even Scorcese got criticized for his later work. At some point even discerning audience start judging a film on the filmmaker’s previous works. This is a curse for Pathbreaking filmmakers.
even i was disappointed by GURU and YUVA. Still i am a big time fan of Maniratnam.
well , me a great fan of mani ratnam too like all the people who posted comments above but the only difference is i loved guru and think the film had class of its own.
:x
true,the film didnt hav the impact of nayagan ,but then thats what mani ratnam intended it to be… u cant giv all the films the same treatment… guru is the story of a village lad who never had access to “convent education” ( rather,didnt even pass him tenth)
but still makes it big and competes with the biggest and best , the credit for which goes to his unconventional thinking and his “never say die ” attitude. this film doesnot stop at narrating the story of a village under dog who makes it big, but brings in a totally new dimension by revealing the means and methods used to fulfill his dreams…
this film is the reflection of todays situation where we youngr generation are just concerned abt the goal giving no concern to the path followed to attain the goal…
mani ratnam makes us sympathise wih the protagnist in the first half of the movie and then reveals his cunning ways of business in the second half ,thereby putting the audience in to a dilema as if this person is to be supported by the audience..
and the best part of the movie is that mani ratnam doesnt take sides or justify “guru s” actions .
leaving the audience to ponder over the questions of morality and success and the means and methods to it,the effect of money on relationships…
i feel all those who havnt seen the movie,should comment only after they hav seen it. :((
I’ve seen the film mr. nobody and i still think it is terrible.
Different films eveoke different kinds of reaction. guru made me very angry because in my opinion it was trying to justify the corruption the lead character indulges in. to top it, in the final court scene, which according to me is the most ridiculous scene ever written, he compares himself to mahatma gandhi, because he also stood against the government for the benefit of his people and his country. And I really wonder when and how did you sympathise with him.
I also felt that it was extremely loud.
and what were those pointless slow motions were doing in that na na re song??? It looked as if they didnt have enough duration of required shots so they had to settle for reduction in the speed of those shots to fill the gap. It looked really odd. and why that pointless song has been inserted when he becomes a father? may be the intention was to lighten the mood of the film which otherwise was becoming little serious- but it still looked unnecessary and distracting.
For me guru just did not work, music was the only saving grace but then good music cant make a bad film good, although, i feel, sometimes it can make a bad film work (dil to pagal hai for example)
oops theres a typo there, ended up typing mr. nobody instead of dr. nobody.
adesh…
point noted… but that s exactly what guru is about .. its about a man ,cunning in design ,who attains his goals thru crooked ways ,has no remorse ,guilt or shame and to top it all, compares himself to mahatma gandhi…..
havent u seen similar people in todays society..
switch on the news channel….
thats exactly what todays politicans, public figure are doing….
mani ratnams presentation of those scenes wer not correct,as adhesh and others said.. as he was trying hard to please the front benchers or wasnt sure as if to support or remain impartial…
but the concept of the movie will attracts or thrills me , although the execution was not up to the mark…
true, guru could hav been better..far better..