What are Mani Ratnam movies all about?
The ultimate combination of sensitive story telling, commercial chutzpah ( Mani invented the item song) , star quotient and amazing technical finesse due to a stellar team of cameramen, editors, music directors and art direction.
The scenes that remain with you much after the movie ( Arvind Swamy dousing the afire national flag with his knees with Rahman's background music) , the tender straight out of life romantic moments ( Alaipayuthey train sequences) , the scene where Mohanlal waves to the crowd in Iruvar and also songs ... ( Simran's outstretched aanchal on a desolate beach as she plays with her daughter in Kannathil Muthamital, the sheer despair in Tu Hi Re in Bombay)
The intensity of the characters - Kamal Hasan in Nayakan, Rajnikant in Dalapathy, Abhishek in Yuva.
Raavan fails because Mani Ratnam has become formulaic in his approach. Cookie cutter in consulting speak ... He makes 3 fundmental mistakes.
1. Not being subtle and dumbing it down
He decided that he wants to adapt the Ramayan. And he marketed the movie blatantly as Raavan. First big mistake. Did anyone realize Dalapathy was an adaptation of Mahabharata before watching the movie. He let us know that through subtlety , the name Surya, the orange hued camera work and so on. Why does he have to make Govinda hop trees to tell us he is Hanuman right in his opening scene? Just the first shot where he is lying on the entry barrier is good enough. Did someone tell him the Hindi audience was not smart enough ?
2. Craft overpowering storytelling
Mani Ratnam, you were the story teller par excellence. You made us feel for the characters. Their pain was our pain. We wanted Roja to succeed in Kashmir. We empathized with Mohan in Mouna Ragam. We were worried about Shalini and Karthik in Alaipayuthey. Here we care a damn for the characters except for some scenes where a bruised Ash shows her emotions. You yearn for moments like this scene when Dev rescues Ragini and then she asks Dev when he finally finds her " Did you come searching for me or for Beera". Beera's characterization is chaotic and Abhishek despite his best intentions is neither menacing nor larger than life. You fail to show the Robinhood in him properly and there is a certain laziness in you nowadays that prevents you from hitting juicy screenplay full tosses to the boundary. The same golden chance was squandered in Guru where you missed an opportunity to show how Dhirubhai prevent a bear cartel on his stocks. This laziness perplexes me .
3. Casting?
Remember how Rajnikant gave the performance of his lifetime in Dalapathy. Or how a Raghuvaran who always played the villain played an anguished dad in Anjali. Simran acting out of her skin in Kannathil Mutham Ital. Even a corpulent Arvind Swamy passed muster in Bombay. And Mithun da added flavour to Ramnath Goenka. Here Abhishek despite his best intentions cannot do justice to Raavan. He evokes as much menace as a ticket collector in trains and appears schizophrenic to comical to elfish. Its intriguing that in the same movie certain unknowns like Priyamani as Beera's sister register an impact but Beera struggles. It was a casting coup to get Govinda as Hanuman, but you waste him rather than endearing him to the viewers. Vikram a national award winner reduced to being a Scissors cigaratte ad model in the whole movie. Again inexplicable. Aishwarya is so professional that she copies Shobhana frame by frame when she dances Bharatnatyam ( btw Shobhana is the choreographer of the song). The best actor in the movie is Ravi Kishen who saves the movie in several ways. Wish you had also given justice to Laxman who seems to be on a hardship allowance in the forests( Nikhil Dwivedi).
But the movie is still watchable due to the following
1. Santosh Sivan's camerawork brings out the harness of the terrain and provides the ideal locations for Ashokavanam. The rain and the terrain shots in the jungle are amazing.
2. The last 20 minuetes, The climax on the bridge is awesomely shot and the last 10 minutes where Vikram asks Ash to take a lie detector test gives the movie a respectable ending. In a way the end salvages the movie being an also-ran.
3. I would still give Mani Ratnam staying true to his vision and film-making style. Well you can still forgive your mom for making a bad curry once in a while right?
The ultimate combination of sensitive story telling, commercial chutzpah ( Mani invented the item song) , star quotient and amazing technical finesse due to a stellar team of cameramen, editors, music directors and art direction.
The scenes that remain with you much after the movie ( Arvind Swamy dousing the afire national flag with his knees with Rahman's background music) , the tender straight out of life romantic moments ( Alaipayuthey train sequences) , the scene where Mohanlal waves to the crowd in Iruvar and also songs ... ( Simran's outstretched aanchal on a desolate beach as she plays with her daughter in Kannathil Muthamital, the sheer despair in Tu Hi Re in Bombay)
The intensity of the characters - Kamal Hasan in Nayakan, Rajnikant in Dalapathy, Abhishek in Yuva.
Raavan fails because Mani Ratnam has become formulaic in his approach. Cookie cutter in consulting speak ... He makes 3 fundmental mistakes.
1. Not being subtle and dumbing it down
He decided that he wants to adapt the Ramayan. And he marketed the movie blatantly as Raavan. First big mistake. Did anyone realize Dalapathy was an adaptation of Mahabharata before watching the movie. He let us know that through subtlety , the name Surya, the orange hued camera work and so on. Why does he have to make Govinda hop trees to tell us he is Hanuman right in his opening scene? Just the first shot where he is lying on the entry barrier is good enough. Did someone tell him the Hindi audience was not smart enough ?
2. Craft overpowering storytelling
Mani Ratnam, you were the story teller par excellence. You made us feel for the characters. Their pain was our pain. We wanted Roja to succeed in Kashmir. We empathized with Mohan in Mouna Ragam. We were worried about Shalini and Karthik in Alaipayuthey. Here we care a damn for the characters except for some scenes where a bruised Ash shows her emotions. You yearn for moments like this scene when Dev rescues Ragini and then she asks Dev when he finally finds her " Did you come searching for me or for Beera". Beera's characterization is chaotic and Abhishek despite his best intentions is neither menacing nor larger than life. You fail to show the Robinhood in him properly and there is a certain laziness in you nowadays that prevents you from hitting juicy screenplay full tosses to the boundary. The same golden chance was squandered in Guru where you missed an opportunity to show how Dhirubhai prevent a bear cartel on his stocks. This laziness perplexes me .
3. Casting?
Remember how Rajnikant gave the performance of his lifetime in Dalapathy. Or how a Raghuvaran who always played the villain played an anguished dad in Anjali. Simran acting out of her skin in Kannathil Mutham Ital. Even a corpulent Arvind Swamy passed muster in Bombay. And Mithun da added flavour to Ramnath Goenka. Here Abhishek despite his best intentions cannot do justice to Raavan. He evokes as much menace as a ticket collector in trains and appears schizophrenic to comical to elfish. Its intriguing that in the same movie certain unknowns like Priyamani as Beera's sister register an impact but Beera struggles. It was a casting coup to get Govinda as Hanuman, but you waste him rather than endearing him to the viewers. Vikram a national award winner reduced to being a Scissors cigaratte ad model in the whole movie. Again inexplicable. Aishwarya is so professional that she copies Shobhana frame by frame when she dances Bharatnatyam ( btw Shobhana is the choreographer of the song). The best actor in the movie is Ravi Kishen who saves the movie in several ways. Wish you had also given justice to Laxman who seems to be on a hardship allowance in the forests( Nikhil Dwivedi).
But the movie is still watchable due to the following
1. Santosh Sivan's camerawork brings out the harness of the terrain and provides the ideal locations for Ashokavanam. The rain and the terrain shots in the jungle are amazing.
2. The last 20 minuetes, The climax on the bridge is awesomely shot and the last 10 minutes where Vikram asks Ash to take a lie detector test gives the movie a respectable ending. In a way the end salvages the movie being an also-ran.
3. I would still give Mani Ratnam staying true to his vision and film-making style. Well you can still forgive your mom for making a bad curry once in a while right?
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