Mani Ratnam

Mani Ratnam (Tamil: மணி ரத்னம்) (born 2 June 1956 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. His directorial debut was 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), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Yuva (2004), Guru (2007), and his "terrorism trilogy" consisting of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se (1998), Ratnam is widely credited with having revolutionised the Tamil film industry and altering the profile of Indian cinema. Ratnam has won five Filmfare Awards (South), four Filmfare Awards (Hindi), and twelve international film festival awards. 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. His film Roja was the only Indian film to feature in TIME Magazine's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time.

Personal life and education

Mani Ratnam was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India to Tamil brahmin parents. His actual name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam. He did his schooling at Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School. 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. Ratnam married actress Suhasini in 1988. They have a son named Nandhan Mani Ratnam.
Ratnam lives in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs his production company Madras Talkies.

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. He has worked with many of India's superstars, including Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor,Akkineni Nagarjuna, Mammootty, Mohanlal as well as up-coming superstars Surya and Vikram.

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. His following efforts were the Malayalam film Unaru (1984), which starred Mohanlal, and then two Tamil films, Pagal Nilavu and Idaya Kovil.
In 1986, Mani finally attained commercial success in Tamil Nadu through the Tamil language romantic drama Mouna Ragam 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 the versatile Tamil actor Kamal Hassan for the film, which went on to become a legendary success in the industry.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. The story was inspired by the real life story of underworld king Varadarajan Mudaliar.

Late 1980s and early 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 made in Telugu, named 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 Rajnikanth and Mammooty. 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 superstar.
With Thalapathi, Mani ended his association with music director Ilaiyaraaja, bringing in debutant music director A. R. Rahman to score his Tamil epic Roja. It turned out to be Mani's greatest find, as Rahman would go on to become a musical legend on his own right in the annals of Indian 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 comedy action, 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. 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.

Late 1990s

Again in 1995, Ratnam co-wrote and co-produced his wife Suhasini Mani Ratnam's directorial debut, Indira. The film is a woman-centered story, with Suhasini's cousin Anu Haasan playing the lead role. It performed poorly at the box office. Ratnam returned to direction the following year with Iruvar, starring Mohanlal and Prakash Raj, a film that Ratnam himself considers to be his finest effort to date. Inspired by the true story of iconic Tamil film star and politician MG Ramachandran and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, it was hailed critically as a fine effort in film-making, winning Best Film at the Festival of the Auteur Films in Belgrade.
Ratnam decided to charter new territories in with his next film, making his debut in Hindi language films with Dil Se. The film had Hindi superstar Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in the lead. Preity Zinta made her debut in the movie. Ratnam used the conflict in the north-eastern states as a backdrop to tell a love story between an Indian journalist and a north-eastern woman. The film was particularly famous for the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya", which was shot atop a moving train. Ratnam returned to Tamil films after that and directed the romance drama Alaipayuthey (which has been remade in Hindi as Saathiya) in 2000, starring R. Madhavan and Shalini. Alaipayuthey was a huge success both commercially and critically; it explored post-marital problems between a young Chennai couple who married beyond their parents' consent, and also returned Ratnam's position as a box office factor.

2000–present

Ratnam's following effort, Kannathil Muthamittal saw him tackling adoption through the eyes of a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka searching for her biological mother. 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 Devgan, 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 Veeriah 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 former was a box office hit whilst the latter was average at the box office. Despite the box office performance, some reviewers (National Award Winning Baradwaj Rangan) found this to be Mani's best work thus far.

Filmography

The following is the list of films directed by Mani Ratnam. Many of his films have been dubbed or remade in several languages. For many of his films, Mani Ratnam is also credited for the story, screenplay and producing:

Mani's father Gopal Ratnam Iyer was a film producer.
Mani's brother, the late G. Venkateswaran, popularly known as G.V., was a noted film producer.
Mani is married to actress Suhasini, niece of Kamal Haasan and daughter of Charuhasan; they have a 17-year-old son.
Mani co-founded and co-runs the independent production company Madras Talkies along with his other brother G. Srinivasan. Srinivasan passed away in Manali on 27 May 2007 when he slipped into a gorge.

Themes

Mani Ratnam oftens 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 Karunanidhi; Kannathil Muthamittal is based on the Sri Lankan Civil War and Aayutha Ezhuthu on student politics. Guru is loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. Thalapathi is based on the Hindu-epic Mahabaratha and Raavanan is said to be inspired by another Hindu epic, Ramayana and Forest brigand Veerappan.
His movies often portray strong friendship. Examples are seen from Rajni-Mammooty in Thalapathi, Surya-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 Rajni-Shobhana-Arvind Swamy in Thalapathi, Karthik-Revathi-Mohan in Mouna Ragam and Prabhu-Karthik in Agni Natchathiram and Simran-Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittalwith the latest being that of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan- Abhishek Bachchan- Vikram in Raavan.

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