Films of Mani Ratnam

[jaiganes]

Incidentally, I was revisiting some scenes from thaLapathi today (just to get a sense of how/where I got this feeling that the treatment in is unsubtle ). The scene with Surya and Deva after the latter visits Subbu's house with the marriage proposal has the touch I'm referring to. Deva is regretting now that he might have made things worse for Surya and Surya doesn't deny it (he does seem upset but brushes it off) but simply says "vENdAm! iva pOnA enna ippO?" This sort of moment is what I'm talking about. idhu mAdhiri moments avvaLavA illaingaREn. The tone with which the film is playing, one could be forgiven for wondering if it's going to be underlined that Deva did not actually spoil anything, the rejection was a given and so on. That's all.

How can one forget the follow up scene on the temple tank where the lovers part and Raaja plays awesome strand of "sundari" set to pathos.
Offcourse we could have been assaulted with repeated scenes of charuhassan expressing his disapproval of surya - but that is not central to the theme of the movie - is it? Also what mani wanted to show was the "stiff upper lip" of our 'educated middle class' towards guys like Surya - it is another recurring theme even as far as until "Ayudha Ezuthu" vis-a-vis Inba's maamanaar. Nice discussion guys - keep it going. hopefully this doesnt end with kabaali trumping thaLabadhi.. hubbukku theeraadha izhukku thedi thandhuraadheengappa.

[sathya_1979]

// dig dhaan

yov adhu dhasaradhar... janagar sita'oda naina illayaa??
naanum konjam confuse dhaan aagitaen.. but karutthu onnudhanae... rendumae epicsdhaan... oruvelai idhu original adhu poli'nu solringalaa...

sorry, naanum confees. reNdumE epics and rendumE original enbadhu IMO. There will always be elements of exaggeration when writing history. But, underlying theme / message is left to the interpretation of reader / viewer / listener. 60000 poNdaatti may or may not be true - aanaa neraya pEr irundhaangangradhu uNmaiyaa irukkalaam. "enakku 1008 vElai irukku, nambaLai paRRi naalu pEr pEsaNum, Oraayiram periyaar vandhaalum ungaLai thiruththa mudiyaadhu etc" - adhu maadhiri idhu irukkalaam - Assigning a number to explain an attribute so that it does not look like abstract / infinite.

[venkkiram]

sari kurippittu sollunga..

அப்பா/அம்மா மேல யார் கைய வச்சாலும் எந்த மகனும்/மகளும் கொஞ்சமாவது சீற்றத்தை காட்டுவாங்க. மணியோட பெண் கதாபாத்திரங்களில் இயல்பாக காணப்படும் துணிச்சல் சுபலக்ஷ்மியிடம் இல்லை. அநியாயத்திற்கு தொடநடுங்கிப் பொண்ணா இருக்கு. ஒரு துணிச்சலான அப்பாவிற்கு பொறந்த பொண்ணா இது?

[sathya_1979]

There she is torn between Surya and her Dad. Devaraj Suryakkaaga pEsa varaama, veettai gaali paNNunu solla vandhirundhaa Subbalakshmi Super Subbarayan kaNakka saNdai pOttiruppaanga

[SoftSword]

venki..
adhu avlo interesting complainta padalai...

[Nerd]

Nayagan on Sun TV. Going back to the point about the in-your-face (unsubtle / bad, if you will) dialogues in thaLapathi:

The dialogue Neela utters 5 seconds before her death - "ippO seththaa naan santhOsamaa saavEn" without knowing absolutely nothing about whats going to happen next. Aint this in-your-face? Why single out thaLapathi? Like I said earlier, typical Mani Ratnam moments.

[kid-glove]

Why single out thaLapathi?

Because it's gay.

[equanimus]

Nerd, brief (i.e. reNdoru) and dramatic varigaL is Mani's style, I'm not debating it. I just find the treatment (dialogue is just one aspect of it) in thaLapathi as one that wallows in its two sentimental cores*. Typically, I feel there's a degree of eschewal, refrainment in Mani's films which I miss here. And I don't mean to suggest this is a big difference or anything.

* The mother-son relationship and the friendship, most other things seem to be at disposal for these two. It is in this respect I gave 'agni n' as a counter-example. Here, though the film is about the two sons, other characters (the sister, the mothers; I just love the bail scene, it's those little moments I miss) are shown to deal with the issue in their own ways.

[equanimus]

And I concede that my disappointment might have been because of how I accessed the film when I revisited it after years, as a gritty crime drama (which it certainly is and that's how I primarily remembered it), Mani Ratnam's take on Karna's story, and so on. So I found the melodrama index too high. As a masala entertainer, it has great moments and works superbly. (But again, isn't the film's tone a little too sombre for that? I think I should see the film again to reconcile my issues with it.)

[ajithfederer]

. Charlie, charlie

Because it's gay.