Films of Mani Ratnam

[groucho070]

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.

You brightened up my day today, thilak. Many thanks

[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.

[P_R]

enna inga saNdai..
PfullA padikkalai, but AN> Dalpathi for sheer.
Basically AN engellAm underrate paNNappadudhO, angellAm nyAn sambavAmi yugE yugE.

[Bala (Karthik)]

TFI would (have) survive(d) without film composers, that's a fact. All you meesicals could dribble around that all you like.

Meesic, composer illaama cinema vaazhum, right. Peer cinema ku idhellaam embellishments etc ok. However,
1. TFI ku idhu velaikkaavaadhu. Andha level-ku innum naama varla IMO
2. Cinema could well survive, aana naanga survive aaga vonaama?

[P_R]

2. Cinema could well survive, aana naanga survive aaga vonaama?

Agree.

Comedy and Music are the only two things good 'on an absolute scale' in Tamil Films.
MichadhellAm konjam manidhAbimAna adippadaiyila aNuga vENdiya aesthetic-experiences dhaanE.

Pre-emptive note: "inge konjam blichu ange konjam blichu" exceptions are not counterexamples.

[P_R]

And btw iruvar is boring in parts, nayagan is always interesting, engaging, riveting.
Too many 'pure cinema' attempt scenes in iruvar. idhai ellAm konjam thalai-la thattiyE vaikkuradhu sari dhaan. nee kadhaiyai sollu, kadhaiyai sollu.

[SoftSword]

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.

agree on ur point about such dramatical dialogues..
but kaalam kaalamaa cinemala nadakkuradhu dhaanae... in-ur-face 'unna uyiruku uyiraa nesikkiren' ellaam kaalam kaalama nadandhuttu dhaan irukku...
i am not saying this for defending that... but deva-surya friendship is not like a regular friendship no? like it did not evolve from school/college/childhood and they were not hostel mates who boozed/quarelled/shared-glass-of-half-tea/watched-porn/d-bar'red together and the bond came from that... friends... adhu oru mutual-respect'la dramatical'a vandhadhu... adhanaala andha dramatical dialogues'um avlo nerd'alaa therila... avlo nerd'alaa (enakku)therila...

[kid-glove]

Meesic, composer illaama cinema vaazhum, right. Peer cinema ku idhellaam embellishments etc ok. However,
1. TFI ku idhu velaikkaavaadhu. Andha level-ku innum naama varla IMO
2. Cinema could well survive, aana naanga survive aaga vonaama?

TFI is sucked into mediocrity indirectly by these film composers. They are the safe bet for unimaginative filmmakers.

[P_R]

TFI is sucked into mediocrity indirectly by these film composers. They are the safe bet for unimaginative filmmakers.

adhai thaan avar thamizh-la sonnAr.

[kid-glove]

adhai thaan avar thamizh-la sonnAr.

I am blaming the composers and this over emphasized priority that they enjoy here in TFI, to indirectly contribute towards aggregation of talentless hacks.