Mani Ratnam's birthday: Exploring common threads across his acclaimed projects
Director, producer, and screenwriter Mani Ratnam has turned 67! An artist par excellence, he is considered one of the finest filmmakers in India and has worked on films in multiple languages ever since starting his career with Pallavi Anu Pallavi in 1983. What better day than today to revisit some common denominators across the projects he has been associated with?
A Mani Ratnam film equals music for the ages
What is Indian cinema without music? It is said that good directors often have a good ear for music, and this becomes repeatedly evident in almost all Mani Ratnam films where music becomes pivotal to the narrative. He has collaborated with AR Rahman for the Ponniyin Selvan series, Dil Se..., and Raavan, among others, and has also nurtured frequent partnerships with the lyricist Gulzar.
The director-screenwriter has always created women of substance
While creating women of substance should not be such a big ask, it unfortunately is, and even in 2023, there is no dearth of films that use female actors only to peddle the male lead's story. However, right from the beginning of his career, Ratnam has created female characters who aren't merely men's crutches. Examples include Kundavai, Nandini (PS), Divya (Mouna Ragam), among others.
He has brought unusual romances to life onscreen
Ratnam's distinctive aspect is his ability to breathe life into unusual romance and his films underline that not all romances follow the same rulebook, not all of them can be gauged by the same parameters. Some well-known examples are the love story initially marred by familial problems in Saathiya or the Stockholm Syndrome and the fractured relationship between a married couple explored in Raavan.
Ratnam has expertly handled several difficult subjects
The skill to mount a film in the right way can make or break a subject. Ratnam proved through the Ponniyin Selvan series that he can be trusted with large-scale period dramas just as easily as with tender love stories. Another example of him working expertly on a difficult subject is Guru—famously allegedly based on the life of Reliance Industries's founder Dhirubhai Ambani.
