Films of Mani Ratnam

[kid-glove]

IMO, alaipayuthe nd Mounaraagam plot is same..

The common betn. two :

1. Ego arising betn hero nd heroine after marriage..
2. Vittu kodukkama irukkirathu..
3. Misunderstanding
4.

4. All of the above

[app_engine]

One of the problems for thaLabathi was it came AFTER nAyakan.

[KlamRoyA]

lol.. its nt choose the best answer..

[KlamRoyA]

One of the problems for thaLabathi was it came AFTER nAyakan.

Yes... apdi vanthiruntha Thalabathi would be one of 'Top 100 movies' of TIME..

[kid-glove]

How is that a problem? After all, Nayakan isn't a great film, let alone a classic, by most people's standards here.

And Mani never learns, does he? Look what that police officer's kid did to Nayagan, shot to his head. Uneasy to the point of patricide, that little girl and Suriya share bed time stories. When she finds out, would she do all the stuff that black kid would do to Uma Thurman in KB-3?

[equanimus]

For 30 odd years, this child fostered intense feelings about this abandonment, and the ill feeling and shame it has brought on him. Mani shows this. One meeting by the sun with Jai Shankar is enough to get past it. Suddenly the fact that she was a 16 year old woman at the time, is enough for him to turn it against himself.

Oh, I'm not talking about ill feeling here, k-g. Here's a 32-year old man who's just introduced to his biological mother as a stranger. The emotional gap between the two is what I'm talking about. Mani's treatment here draws from the most turgidly melodramatic/sentimental rendering of the Kunti-Karna relationship rather than reflect on all the dramatic dimensions of such an encounter.

The accidental manja saree encounter and the immediate sequence didn't work as melodrama, did it? The impact was not there to categorize it as melodrama. I thought it was a deliberate choice to be less melodramatic. To make a hugely manipulative melodrama, Nandhalala, Sethu, Nanda, Pithamagan kind of twist of fate is necessary. Or do you mean melodrama by means of 'crying' alone? Mani shies away from NT-esque melodrama even when they almost roll around the floor and cry.

Oh, I should clarify here. Mani Ratnam is of course one of the pioneers of naturalistic acting, understated style and so on. By melodrama, I don't mean over-the-top performances at all. I'm primarily talking about the writing, specifically a sort of mellowing down the sheer dramatic tension to something merely maudlin. For instance, let's take dheyva magan. I think the sheer drama of the confrontation between the rich father and the abandoned elder son is so powerful. The performances are mostly over-the-top but that doesn't make the scene maudlin.

[kid-glove]

Yeah, maudlin, but also neither here nor there.

Re-NT,
You term it as 'Over-the-top', but I'd seen a intense, nuanced performance, that makes it powerful.

Here's a 32-year old man who's just introduced to his biological mother as a stranger. The emotional gap between the two is what I'm talking about.

Yeah, that's why brought up Secrets and Lies in one of my response to Jai. Look how two strangers meet as biological mother and daughter. And 'kiss and make up' is my dig at Thalapathy..

Kunti-Karna relationship. I haven't read the original text. The version I read, to go along with my underage when I read it, was too flat to get the original tonal sensibilities. But I sort of get the various nuances and possibilities, it'd have been a richer film to imaginatively adapt or subvert it.

[Nerd]

Naanum economy mattum dhaan problem(!) nu sollaleeng. Most relationships in Mani films are artificial if you look at them from a distance. Mani's biggest victory lies in the fact that the setting etc., is so good that you can't distance yourself away from the proceedings. But if you are in the mood to deride any of his films, there are plenty of LOL-worthy lines / scenes, like the one you qouted. Deva has no business to stoop down to the level of Surya to accept him as his commander-in-chief. But he does, in a very effective scene. Rain and all that I bought it. Or he was just in the mood for recruiting someone. indha kaalaththula sila technical blogs paarththu hire pannra maadhiri

[kid-glove]

NT's gestural acting alone lifts up ordinary 'maudlin' seem powerful and strong melodrama.

Louis Malle calls NT TFI's Belmondo. 100 Brando's, 200 Mifune's, 300 Belmondo's, 400 Vittorio Gassman's put together would never equal 1000 different faces of NT's.

Bachchan propaganda machinery'lam 70's scriptwriters vechu aadurainga. Bloody retards.

[equanimus]

Re-NT,
You term it as 'Over-the-top', but I'd seen a intense, nuanced performance, that makes it powerful.

Oh, certainly. This is one of my all-time favourite Sivaji films, his performance here is a blistering one (pun not intended). Why do you equate (or think I mean to equate) over-the-top to not up to the mark or something to that effect? Superb and over-the-top, that's what I mean.

Yeah, that's why brought up Secrets and Lies in one of my response to Jai. Look how two strangers meet as biological mother and daughter. And 'kiss and make up' is my dig at Thalapathy..

Oh okay. Secret and Lies kELvippattadhu kUda kidaiyAdhu, but got the dig.