| Mani Ratnam | |
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Mani Ratnam at the premiere of Raavan in 2010 |
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| Born | Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer 2 June 1956 Madras, Tamil Nadu, India[1] |
| Residence | Alwarpet, Chennai, India |
| Occupation | Film director Film producer Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Spouse | Suhasini (1988–present) |
Mani Ratnam (Tamil: மணி ரத்னம்; 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), Geethanjali (1989), Anjali (1990), Thalapathi (1991), Iruvar (1997), Alaipayuthey (2000) and Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) 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[2][3] Ratnam is widely credited with having revolutionised the Tamil film industry and altering the profile of Indian cinema.[1]
His Nayagan (1987) and Anjali (1990) were submitted by India in contest for the for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[4] Dil Se was the first film in India to enter the UK Top 10. Ratnam has won multiple National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards (South), four Filmfare Awards (Hindi), and twelve international film festival awards.[5] 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.[6][7] His Roja was the only Indian film to feature in Time magazine's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time.[8] 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.[9]
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Mani Ratnam was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu to Iyer parents.[10] His actual name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer. His father, Ratnam Iyer was a film producer who worked under the banner Venus Pictures.[11] He attended 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,[12] he embarked on a career as a management consultant before becoming a filmmaker.[1] He got into film direction with the help of his brother, producer G. Venkateswaran, who went on to produce many of Mani's films such as Mouna Raagam, Nayagan, Agni Natchathiram, Thalapathi and Anjali[1] and later committed suicide in 2003 due to financial problems.[11]
In 1988 Ratnam married Suhasini, niece of Kamal Haasan and daughter of Charuhasan.[13] Suhasini is a National Award-winning actress and a well-known filmmaker. They have a son named Nandhan. Charuhasan, his father-in-law is a National Award-winning actor as well. Ratnam co-founded the independent production company Madras Talkies with his brother G. Srinivasan who died in an accident in Manali on 27 May 2007.[14] Ratnam lives in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs Madras Talkies.[15]
Mani Ratnam made his directorial debut in 1983, through the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi, that starred Anil Kapoor and Lakshmi.[16] The film explored the relationship between a young man and an older woman.[16] Ratnam managed to persuade acclaimed director and cinematographer Balu Mahendra to serve as his cinematographer. The film did not perform well at the box office, but its brilliant score by Ilaiyaraaja became hugely popular. Still Mani Ratnam earned critical acclaim for it and won a Karnataka State Film Award for Best Screenplay for this film. He then followed it with a film in Malayalam titled Unaru, that dealt with the trade union problems in Kerala. His next film Pagal Nilavu had to settle for quiet obscurity. In 1985 he directed Idaya Kovil which was a major box-office success. All these films had music scores by Ilaiyaraaja.
In 1986, Ratnam finally attained commercial success in through the Tamil romantic drama Mouna Raagam with Revathi and Mohan.[17] The film told the story of the friction between a newlywed 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.
Ratnam's status was elevated further a year later after directing Nayagan that starred Kamal Haasan, which went on to become a huge success.[17] Many Indian critics dubbed it as India's answer to the cult The Godfather.[1] The film, which tells the story of an orphaned slum dweller and his rise to top of the Mumbai underworld hierarchy,[18] was included in Time magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Movies.[6][7] Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa are the only Indian films that have appeared in Time's All-Time 100 Greatest Movies.[19] The film won three National Awards—Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.[18] Its plot was inspired by the real-life story of underworld king Varadarajan Mudaliar.[17]
With commercial success coming back to back, Ratnam wrote and directed Agni Natchathiram. The film dealt with the story of step-brothers played by Prabhu and Karthik.[18] It was notable for use of new techniques in camera framework, especially during the songs. The film had a successful run in the box office.[1] 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 major South Indian languages. Thus Mani opted to do his next project in Telugu: 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.[1] It went on to win the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment in 1990. Ratnam maintained a momentum of making emotional stories of underserved 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 Mahabharatha, ran into trouble when news leaked that the character of Karna, portrayed by Rajinikanth,[18] would die in the end. The climax was altered to appease his fan base.[20]
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 great music composer 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.[1] Starring Arvind Swamy and Madhoo, it was released in 1992 and nominated for the Golden St. George Award at the Moscow International Film Festival.[21] It became so popular that it was dubbed into other languages and met similar success in other regions. Mani took a more light-hearted approach with his next film — Thiruda Thiruda. Scripted by Ram Gopal Varma, it was an 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.
Ratnam again teamed up with Ram Gopal Varma to provide the screenplay for the latter's Telugu 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 a number of awards such as Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, Special Award from the Political Film Society,[22] In the Spirit of Freedom Award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival[23] and the Gala Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Ratnam produced and cowrote the feature Indira, the debut film of his wife as director, and the critical success Iruvar, his next film as director following Bombay. Iruvar won him the Best Film Award at FEST (Belgrade). Then came the third part of his "terrorism trilogy" in 1998 named Dil Se starring Shahrukh Khan and another movie collaboration with Manisha Koirala.[24] Unlike his previous two movies, this one did average business in the Indian market and was hit overseas.[25] Dil Se gained cult status just after it released, was screened in many international film festivals, and won Netpac Special Mention award in Berlin International Film Festival.[26] This movie showed the relationship between an young and obsessed man and dangerous and disturbed woman. Although they loved each other, she was not able to accept that truth because she was disturbed by her dark past. The album was again composed by A. R. Rahman and was very popular amongst the masses — so much that all songs became chartbusters of 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.[27][28] In 2000 Mani directed the romantic drama Alaipayuthey that starred R. Madhavan and Shalini. The film won lots of critical acclaim and won the Netpac Special Mention award at the Berlin International Film Festival.[29] It was Madhavan's first film in a lead role.
Ratnam's following effort, Kannathil Muthamittal, was the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, who desire to meet her biological mother during the Sri Lankan Civil War.[30] The film was a critically lauded commercial success, winning six National Film Awards, Ratnam's second Filmfare Award South for directing, his second In the Spirit of Freedom Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival[31] and an award at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.[32] In 2004, Mani made his second Hindi language effort with Yuva. The film, which tells the story of three youths and how one incident sends their lives on a collision course, received positive reviews and was a hit in the box office.[33] Ratnam 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.[33] The film was was 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.[24]
The year 2007 saw Ratnam direct the Madras Talkies production Guru starring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.[34] The film was a major box office success in 2007.[35]
In 2010, Ratnam worked on a big-budget bilingual being made in Tamil and Hindi:[36] Raavanan in Tamil and Raavan in Hindi.[36] The Tamil version was dubbed into Telugu as Villain. The film released worldwide on 18 June 2010.[37] The film is loosely based on the Hindu epic Ramayana and happened over 14 days when the character Beera kidnaps the wife of a cop to avenge his sister's death. The Tamil version received better reviews than the Hindi, 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. It received critical acclaims in America, Europe and southern parts of India. The New York 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 "a crushing bore of a film, a disappointment on virtually every count"[38] while reviewer Raja Sen commented "It's profoundly sad to see a filmmaker of Ratnam's calibre reduced to this".[39] 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 have followed this trend. It can be attributed to different expectations and tastes of the audiences.
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.[17] His wife Suhasini Maniratnam and actor Vikram Kennedy were present.
Ratnam is particularly known for his eye for technical detail in the art of filmmaking, having worked with and 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 work. Mani Ratnam often makes movies inspired by real-life events and famous epics — Nayagan was loosely based on Varadarajan Mudaliar, an underworld Don in Mumbai. Bombay was based on the ethnic war between Hindus and Muslims that prevailed in Mumbai. Iruvar released in 1997 was based on Tamil Nadu political and cinematic icons — M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi.[17] His 2002 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.[40] Thalapathi was 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. They often portray strong friendship. Examples are seen in Thalapathi, Aayutha Ezhuthu, Thiruda Thiruda, Iruvar and Nayagan among others. He revels in creating onscreen relationship tangles in many of his films such as Thalapathi, Mouna Raagam, Agni Natchathiram, Kannathil Muthamittal and Raavan.
Mani Ratnam is a recipient of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India.[41] He 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 film festivals. In 2010, he was honoured with Jaeger-Lecoultre Glory to the Filmmaker at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.[42]
The following is the list of films directed by Mani Ratnam. Many have been remade or dubbed in several languages, mostly in Telugu and Hindi.
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