Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam | |
|---|---|
| File:Mani Ratnam premiere.jpg Mani Ratnam at the premiere of Raavan in 2010 | |
| Born | Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer 2 June 1956, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation(s) | Film Director Film Producer Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse(s) | Suhasini (1988-Present) |
| Children | Nandhan |
Mani Ratnam (Template:Lang-ta; born Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer on 2 June 1956) is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983. Directing landmark films such as Mouna Raagam (1986), Nayagan (1987), Anjali (1990), Thalapathi (1991), Iruvar (1997), Alaipayuthey (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Yuva (2004), Guru (2007), and his terrorism trilogy consisting of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se (1998), he went on to become one of the leading directors in Indian Cinema[1][2] Ratnam is widely credited with having revolutionised the Tamil film industry and altering the profile of Indian cinema.
His films Nayagan (1987) and Anjali (1990) were submitted by India in contest for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[3] Ratnam has won multiple National Film Awards, five Filmfare Awards (South), four Filmfare Awards (Hindi), and twelve international film festival awards.[4] His Tamil movie Nayagan, Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa are the only Indian films that have appeared in TIME Magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Movies.[5][6] His film Roja was the only Indian film to feature in TIME Magazine's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time.[7] In 2003 BBC International poll, people from 155 countries voted "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from his 1991 film Thalapathi as fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time.[8]
Early life and education
Mani Ratnam was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, to Iyer parents. His actual name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer. He did his schooling at Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Chennai. After graduating with a degree in Commerce from Vivekananda College, University of Madras, and an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, he embarked on a career as a management consultant before becoming a filmmaker. He got into film direction with the help of his late brother, film producer G. Venkateswaran.
Career
Ratnam is particularly known for his eye for technical detail in the art of film making, having worked with and also introduced some of the best music directors, cinematographers, art directors, dialogue writers and editors in India. Several international papers and books have been published on his critically acclaimed movies.
1980s
Mani Ratnam's directorial debut was in 1983, through the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi, starring Anil Kapoor. Mani Ratnam managed to persuade acclaimed director and cinematographer Balu Mahendra to serve as his cinematographer. The film boldly explored the nature of a relationship between a young man and an older woman. The film did not perform well at the box office but its brilliant score by Ilaiyaraaja became hugely popular. His following efforts were the Malayalam film Unaru (1984), which starred Mohanlal, and then two Tamil films, Pagal Nilavu and Idaya Kovil. All these films were average performers although they had strong music scores by Ilaiyaraaja, which became hits.
In 1986, Mani finally attained commercial success in Tamil Nadu through the Tamil language romantic drama Mouna Raagam with Revathi and Mohan. The film told the story of the friction between a newly-wed couple, and remains famous to date as a relevant and realistic portrayal of romance among urban Tamils. Its score by Ilaiyaraaja became a huge success upon release. It was subsequently dubbed into Telugu under the same title and went to become a hit in Andhra Pradesh as well. Mani's status was elevated further a year later writing Nayagan, directing Kamal Haasan for the film, which went on to become a huge success. Many Indian critics dubbed it as India's answer to the cult The Godfather. The film, which tells the story of an orphaned slum dweller and his rise to top of the Mumbai underworld hierarchy, was included in TIME Magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Movies.[5][6] The story was inspired by the real life story of underworld king Varadarajan Mudaliar.
Late 1980s and 1990s
With commercial success coming back to back, Ratnam wrote and directed Agni Natchathiram. The film was notable for use of new techniques in terms of camera framework, especially during the shoot of songs in the film. The film had a successful run in the box office. Mani later returned to familiar territory of winning critical acclaim through his next film. Until then, Mani had made films in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages, and a Telugu film would mark a milestone of having directed films in all South Indian languages. Thus Mani opted to do his next project in Telugu, and it was titled Geethanjali. The film which starred Nagarjuna in the lead role told the story of an ill-fated couple who are both suffering from terminal diseases. Ratnam maintained a momentum of making emotional stories of undeserved people through the Raghuvaran starring Chennai release Anjali in 1990. The film told the story of an autistic child and how she changed the lives of people in colony. Mani later made another underworld-themed Tamil film with Thalapathi in 1991 starring Rajinikanth and Mammootty. With a theme of friendship between a local don and a slum king, Thalapathi earned both critical acclaim and commercial success upon release. Thalapathi , based on the legend of Mahabharata, ran into trouble when news leaked that the character of Karna, portrayed by Rajinikanth, would die in the end. The climax was altered to appease the fan base of the Rajinikanth.
With Thalapathi, Mani ended his long term association with music director Ilaiyaraaja, bringing in debutant music director A. R. Rahman to score for his Tamil classic Roja. It turned out to be Mani's greatest find, as Rahman went on to become a musical legend on his own right in the annals of Indian and International cinema. Roja, a romantic film, tackled themes of terrorism in the regions of Kashmir. The film – starring Arvind Swamy and Madhoo – was released in 1992 and nominated for the Golden St. George Award at the Moscow International Film Festival; it became so popular that it was dubbed into other languages and met similar success in other regions. Mani then took a more light-hearted approach with his next film – Thiruda Thiruda. Scripted by Ram Gopal Varma, the film saw the exploration of action thriller, a departure from the norm for Ratnam, and fared less well at the box office. In 1994, a retrospective of his Tamil films was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. Meanwhile, Ratnam again teamed up with Ram Gopal Varma to provide the screenplay for the latter's Telugu film Gaayam, a socio-politico film loosely based on The Godfather. In 1995, Ratnam returned to Tamil language drama. Bombay starring Arvind Swamy and Manisha Koirala told the story of a Hindu-Muslim couple in the midst of the 1993 religious Bombay riots and bombings. The film was met with controversy and censorship upon release. However Bombay was financially very successful and well appreciated by the critics. It won the Special Award from the Political Film Society, the Wim Van Leer In Spirit of Freedom Award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and the Gala Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Then came his third part of "Terrorism Trilogy" in 1998 named Dil Se starring Superstar Shahrukh Khan and another movie collaboration with Manisha Koirala after Bombay. Unlike previous two movies, this movie did average business in Indian Market but was hit in overseas market. This Film gained cult status just after it released and this movie was screened in many International Film Festivals and won Netpac Special Mention award in Berlin Film Festival. This movie showed the relationship between an young and obsessed lover boy and dangerous and disturbed lady,although both loved each other but girl was not able to accept that truth because she was disturbed by her dark past and this role (Of Meghana) was very beautifully delivered by Manisha koirala that she got her fourth filmfare nomination for best female Actress in 1999. The album was again composed by A. R. Rahman and this whole album was very popular amongst the masses so much that all songs of this album became chartbuster of year 1998 and gave Rahman his next Filmfare Award for best Music Direction in 1999. This album also marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman.[9][10]
2000–present
Ratnam's following effort, Kannathil Muthamittal, was the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, who desires to meet her biological mother during the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The film was a critically lauded commercial success, winning six National Film Awards, Ratnam's second Filmfare Award South for directing, his second In Spirit for Freedom Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival and an award at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. In 2004, Mani made his second Hindi language effort with Yuva. The film, which tells the story of three different youths and how one incident sends their three lives on a collision course, received positive reviews and was a hit in the box office. Ratnam also made the film simultaneously in Tamil as Aayutha Ezhuthu, starring Surya Sivakumar, R. Madhavan and Siddharth replacing Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi respectively. The film was an average at the Tamil box office, but critics favored the Tamil version over the Hindi version. Ratnam also had his first heart attack during shooting for Yuva.
2007 saw Ratnam direct the Madras Talkies production Guru starring Abhishek Bachchan. It became one of 2007's biggest hits. In 2010 Ratnam worked on a big-budget bilingual being made in Tamil and Hindi. The films are titled Raavanan in Tamil and Raavan in Hindi. The Tamil version was dubbed into Telugu as Villain. The film released worldwide on June 18, 2010.
The film is loosely based on the Hindu epic "Ramayana" and happened over a period of 14 days where the character Beera kidnaps the wife of a cop to avenge his sister's death. The Tamil version received better reviews than the Hindi version, based mainly on the lead's performance. The Hindi version of the film received mostly negative reviews and was a failure at the box office.The film received critical acclaims in America,Europe and southern part of India.The NY times called the movie a "critics' pick".Bollywood reviewers overall rated the movie very poorly,Taran Adarsh said "On the whole, Raavan is a king-sized disappointment, in terms of content" and Rajiv Masand said "...is a crushing bore of a film, a disappointment on virtually every count"[11] while another reviewer Raja Sen commented "It's profoundly sad to see a filmmaker of Ratnam's calibre reduced to this".[12] The Tamil version was declared a box office success. The contrasting response to the same film on the either side of the vindhyas is not surprising,as many films in the past,that have followed this trend.This can be attributed to different expectations and tastes of the audiences. Some reviewers (National Award Winning Baradwaj Rangan) found this to be Mani's best work thus far.
Mani Ratnam received the Glory to the Filmmaker! Award at the 67th Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2010. The ceremony was followed by a screening of Raavanan in Tamil. His wife, Suhasini Maniratnam and actor Vikram Kennedy were also present at the ceremony.
Film-making style
Mani Ratnam often makes movies inspired by real-life events & famous epics: Nayagan is loosely based on Varadarajan Mudaliar, an underworld Don in Mumbai at that time; Bombay is based on the ethnic war between Hindus and Muslims in Mumbai. Iruvar is based on Tamil Nadu political and cinematic icons M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi. His 2002 film Kannathil Muthamittal was based on the Sri Lankan Civil War and Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004) focussed on student politics. Guru, released in 2007 was loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. Thalapathi, based on the Hindu-epic Mahabarata and Raavanan is said to be inspired by another Hindu epic, Ramayana. His movies are notable for staccato dialogues. His movies often portray strong friendship. Examples are seen from Rajni - Mammootty in Thalapathi, Suriya - Siddarth in Aayutha Ezhuthu, Prasanth - Anand in Thiruda Thiruda, Mohanlal - Prakash Raj in Iruvar and Kamal - Janakaraj in Nayagan. He also revels in creating onscreen relationship tangles like Rajnikanth - Shobana - Arvind Swamy in Thalapathi, Karthik - Revathi - Mohan in Mouna Raagam, Prabhu - Karthik in Agni Natchathiram and Simran - Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittal with the latest being that of Aishwarya Rai - Abhishek Bachchan - Vikram in Raavan.
Family
Mani is the son of Gopal Ratnam, a film producer. Mani's brother, the late G. Venkateswaran, popularly known as G.V., was a noted film producer, as well. He married actress Suhasini, niece of Kamal Haasan and daughter of Charuhasan in 1988. They have a son named Nandhan. Mani co-founded the independent production company Madras Talkies along with his brother G. Srinivasan who passed away in Manali on 27 May 2007. Ratnam lives in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs his production company Madras Talkies.
Awards & Honors
Mani Ratnam has won several National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards and International film awards. His film Geethanjali won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Other films like Mouna Raagam, Anjali and Kannathil Muthamittal have won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. Roja and Bombay have won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. His films such as Bombay, Iruvar and Kannathil Muthamittal have won International film awards and screened at various film festivals. In 2010, he was honoured with Jaeger-Lecoultre Glory To The Filmmaker at 67th Venice International Film Festival[13]
Filmography
The following is the list of films directed by Mani Ratnam. Many of his films have been remade or dubbed in several languages, mostly in Telugu and Hindi.
Stage productions
- Netru, Indru, Naalai (2006)
See also
References
- ^ Bal, Mieke (2004). Narrative Theory: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies. Taylor & Francis. pp. 339–44. ISBN 978-0-415-31661-3.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Pat Padua (2001). "FROM THE HEART: The Films of Mani Ratnam". CineScene. Retrieved 2009-02-25.
- ^ Velayutham, Selvaraj (2008). "Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's Other Film Industry". Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-39680-6.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "Awards for Mani Ratnam". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
- ^ a b "Time 100: Nayakan". Time Magazine. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
- ^ a b "Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies List". Time Magazine. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
- ^ Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies#10 Best Soundtracks
- ^ THE WORLD'S TOP TEN, BBC World Service.com
- ^ Gopalan, Lalitha (2005). "Bombay: BFI Film Classics" (Document). BFI Publishing. p. 9.
{{cite document}}: Unknown parameter|isbn=ignored (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "Political Film Society - Previous Award Winners". Political Film Society.
- ^ Rajeev Masand. "Masand: 'Raavan' is a bore of a film". IBN Livedate=2010-06-19.
- ^ Raja Sen (2010-06-18). "Raavan is unforgivably boring". Rediff.com.
- ^ "Venezia 67 Awards". Venice Film Festival. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
Further reading
- Benjamin, S. (2006 15(4), 423-435.). A rose by any other name: exploring the politics of Mani Ratnam's Roja. Contemporary South Asia,.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - Chaudhuri, Shohini (2005). "Cinema of South India and Sri Lanka". Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1799-9.
- Chaudhuri, Shohini (2005). "Cinema of South India and Sri Lanka". Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-1799-9.
- Mallhi, Angie (2006). The Illusion of Secularism: Mani Ratnam's Bombay and the Consolidation of Hindu Hegemony. University of Victoria: CAPI Occasional Paper #31.Victoria: Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.
- Terska Ciecko, Anne (2006). "National Cinema and State Authority". Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular culture in a Global Frame. Berg: Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84520-237-8.
- Gopalan, Lalitha (2005). Bombay: BFI Film Classics. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85170-956-7.
- Nagappan, Ramu (2005). "Momentary Pleasures of Reconciliation". Speaking Havoc: Social Suffering & South Asian Narratives. Washington: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-98488-9.
- Velayutham, Selvaraj (2008). Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's Other Film Industry. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-39680-6.
External links
- Indian film directors
- 1956 births
- Living people
- Indian Hindus
- University of Madras alumni
- Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies alumni
- Tamil film directors
- Tamil-language film directors
- Tamil screenwriters
- Tamil people
- Indian film producers
- People from Chennai
- Indian screenwriters
- Hindi-language film directors
- National Film Award winners
- Filmfare Awards winners
- Recipients of the Padma Shri