Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam born on 2nd june 1956, into a family of film distributors and and producers, yet being banned from watching movies as a kid to growing into an MBA graduate with reluctance to movies considering it ‘a waste of time’ finally realizing his passion for films, after being inspired by the works of great filmmakers like Balachander, Bharathiraja, Mahendran and actors like Sivaji and Nagesh, he quit his job and entered the world of cinema in the year 1977 and thus became Mani Ratnam . Having no prior experiences in film making, and one of the very few directors to have not assisted another director before turning into a filmmaker, Pallavi anu pallavi a Kannada flick marked his debut. After few years of initial struggle and a lot of compromises he finally attained acclaim and recognition for his fifth movie over all and third in Tamil, Mouna Raagam, and from there it was no turning back for him and he started etching his name as one of the prominent personalities of Indian cinema.
Every one of his film is pure magic and why is it?
Ethereal Visuals
His films are always a visual treat, excelling in every technical aspect. His attention to details are high on point as even in his debut movie his technical crew was a dream team consisting the best people from the respective fields to provide supreme craftsmanship, they were Balu Mahendra for cinematography, B.Lenin for editing, Thotta Tharani for art direction and Ilaiyaraja for Music score. In few of his interviews he has mentioned that he has made a lot of compromises in his early movie citing differences with producers yet his films never cease to amaze us visually he proves why cinema is called a work of art. His locations are dreamy and exquisite and he doesn’t prefer foreign locations (except for kannathil muththamittal which was shot majorly in Sri Lanka) and shows the best of India. The best feature about his movies is how all the different elements of the movie such as music, cast, locations, dialogue and etc all blend into one single thing making it hard to differentiate one form the other.
Fascinating story-lines/Intriguing story-telling
Be it the adaptation of epics such as Mahabharatham or Ramayanam, or penning auto-biographies of prominent people or adapting a cultural, political or social scenario, he handles all the subjects like no other. His Terrorism trilogy (Roja, Bombay, Uyire) stands as a bench mark for what films are capable of more than providing wholesome entertainment. His Romance trilogy (Mouna raagam, Alaipayuthey, Ok Kanmani), three different love stories for three different genrations shows why he is a youth’s favorite while many fail to update themselves with the go of the world he is someone who has understood the minds of the youngsters well and his works speaks for it. And the way he handles controversial topics like Autism and civil war in films such as Anjali and Kannathil Muthamitaal is pure finesse. His inspiring biopic on Dhirubhai Ambani, transforming political rivalries into trade mark films shows his expertise in film making. Though some of his movies received mixed reviews his story lines are strong, for example in Kadal, the hero (Gautam Karthik) has to choose his side between two people one who follows and believes in bible (Aravind Swamy) and the other who doesn’t (Arjun) the oldest ever story of the good and bad. And the story of how a war captivation changes a angry, young, audacious man. There is story and then there is story-telling, very few have both the qualities though his pace his slow his way of telling the story is intriguing Like his non-linear story narration of Alaipayuthe, Multi-story line of Ayutha ezhuthu, each has its own way of unravelling depending on the subject the script handles.
Characterisations
Characters such as Manohar, Chandrakumar, Amudha, Velu naikar, Surya and many more kinds of stays with you forever for two reasons one for the way its written and second for the way they are portrayed and he never misses out on this two. His casting is perfect that it is hard to think of anyone else in that place. His characters are 100% genuine and realistic and are not at all sugar-coated or in any way made to appear filmy. For example the character of Karthi in Kaatru veliyidai is not a very usual Protagonist of Tamil cinema he is a chauvenistic, audacious young man who opposes the usual image of male leads in Tamil cinema. They are rusty yet true and always stay in the grey tone (neither completely good nor completely bad). Though they talk very less their impressions are enduring and their personalities do all the talking, which is why the award list and nomination for his movies is long and growing
A film’s outcome relies completely on the director’s shoulders because it is his job to extract the best from everyone around him and that is why it is an herculean task and without any doubt Director Mani Ratnam pulls it off effortlessly each time and that is why his movies are always ahead of time and doesn’t have an expiry date tagged to it. He is irreplaceable and one of the best of the current century and a legacy very hard to keep up.
DEDICATED TO THE MAGICIAN OF INDIAN CINEMA!
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