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| MANI’S
INSPIRATIONS AND OUR GUESS ON RAAVANAN! |
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Mani Ratnam has always chosen to thread
his films around situations, characters
and incidents that are part of our lives
or beliefs. Perhaps, that is what makes
them as fascinating as they turn out to
be. In the last 20 years or so, there
are perhaps only 2-3 Mani Ratnam films
that have not been inspired by real life
personalities, incidents or mythology.
They are Thiruda Thiruda, Alai Paayuthe
and Ayutha Ezhuthu. Of course, Ayutha
Ezhuthu did have a lot of social relevance
and drew a lot from the political scenario
of our country. But, it was still primarily
a work of fiction. If so, even Dil Se
and Roja can be said to be works of fiction
rather than being inspired from the psyche
of a terrorist and hostage and his wife
respectively.
But, the fact remains that Mani Ratnam
hardly ever constructs films that cannot
be related to our lives and beliefs at
some level. Some of his best works have
come, while drawing inspiration from real
life. Nayagan, inspired from the life
of Varadaraja Mudaliar is arguably the
finest Mani Ratnam film ever. There has
however been gossip or talk that Mani
Ratnam himself considers Iruvar to be
his best work and the source of Iruvar’s
inspiration is no secret to anyone in
Tamil Nadu.
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| Gurukanth
Desai was an adaptation of one of the greatest businessmen
modern India has seen, the one we experienced in Guru.
The best part of Mani Ratnam adaptations of real life
incidents and personalities is that he does not take
sides. He chooses neither to glorify nor run down
the subject of his inspiration. He shows them –
strengths, weaknesses, perfections, flaws and all.
We saw this in Guru, Iruvar, and Nayagan. Mani Ratnam
was always willing to project his protagonist as just
a normal human being who could go wrong and that is
what sets him apart as a film maker. His protagonist
is as likely to be greedy, corrupt and unscrupulous
as he is to be benevolent and righteous. Even when
he portrayed a love story in Alai Payudhe he chose
to show not just the mushy and romantic part, he depicted
what can go wrong even with a newly married couple.
He does not paint rosy pictures of life, he shows
it, warts and all, which is why we connect to it.
The only film in the recent past where his protagonists
were absolutely squeaky clean characters is Aayudha
Ezhuthu and most of you will admit that it was one
of his lesser effective films.
Even more interesting is his adaptation of the great
Indian epics. How he adapted a segment of the Mahabharatha
to make Thalapathi is well known. Now, he gets ready
to reveal his take on the other great Indian epic,
the Ramayana. Though he has not admitted it openly
(he seldom does, even with Guru he never said that
it was based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani), we
can gauge from the title and trailers what it is all
about. Now, how has he chosen to depict some of the
most revered character in Indian mythology?
That he has chosen to adapt the Ramayana and named
the movie Raavanan is proof enough of his guts. This
is definitely bound to be a different perspective
of the Ramayana, one that delves deeper into the psyche
of the 10 headed asura who has captured the imagination
of many people. In fact, there exist a few views which
say that Raavanan was in fact one of the most multi-faceted
personalities in the Ramayana. An Asura who was a
Brahman by birth, a great scholar, musician and one
who had acquired a boon from Lord Brahma and the divine
sword (Chandrahas) from Lord Shiva himself.
Perhaps, Raavanan is a film that goes along this perspective,
a film that will bring out the lesser known perspective
of Raavanan. It did require a film maker of Mani Ratnam’s
caliber and courage to go in for such a daring interpretation
of an epic so deeply ingrained into the Indian psyche.
Is our guess right? Let’s wait and see.
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| Tags
: Raavanan,
Vikram,
Aishwarya
Rai, Mani
Ratnam, AR
Rahman,
Prithviraj,
Priyamani,
Karthik,
Prabhu |
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