Films of Mani Ratnam

[equanimus]

And Gitanjali, AN, Anjali > T is stuff.

thaLapathi is obviously made on a much bigger canvas and is an iconic film in all ways, but when I say I prefer 'agni n,' I'm referring to the way the emotions are dealt with in that film. In thaLapathi, I don't think you've a scene like the train scene you quoted. Such vulnerable moments of characters, in general the dimension of "pEsApporuL" are missing in thaLapathi but rather they're overturned into something feel-good and maudlin. It not only fails to do justice to the source material but is also notches below how Mani handles emotions in other films. Here it's like most characters are out there to establish each others' goodness. "En-nA nI en naNban.." (such explicit, in-your-face dialogue to someone who's one of your closest friends!) "en aNNan kUdavA nAn iththanai nAL mOdhittu irundhEn..." "unakkoru kudumbam irundhudhunnA adhu enakkum kudumbam, ennai pirikka pArkkAdhadA.." I totally am aware of the giant stature of the film, but the abruptness of such changes of hearts are laughably bad. nInga Bombay's altruistic ending-ai comparison eduththA, I see your point, but 'agni n' nails the changes of heart, especially in comparison to how things transpire in thaLapathi.