Showing posts with label Mani Ratnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mani Ratnam. Show all posts

April 18, 2015

"Sakhi" Review - Back to Nostalgia after "OK Bangaram"

Fifteen Years back, I wrote this film review after watching Mani Ratnam's movie"Sakhi" ("Alaipayuthey" in Tamil and "Saathiya" in Hindi) on April 14, 2000. Yes, it is edit-worthy but I wouldn't change one word. If a reviewer has mellowed, I am sure Mani Ratnam has too - waiting for a perfect reprise of another love story in "Ok Bangaram" ("O Kaadal Kanmani" in Tamil). Soundtrack by AR Rahman got released yesterday. Sounds promising. As I said here, welcome back Mani! My review of "Ok Bangaram" below in previous post.


"Ok Bangaram" (Telugu)/ "O Kadal Kanmani" (Tamil) Movie Review



When it comes to romance, Mani Ratnam has an uneven advantage in making even the mundane plots dance on screen with unblemished technical brilliance and undiminished attention to the nuances of love. “Ok Bangaram” passes the test for Mani Ratnam  and it is no mean feat for one of the finest masters of Indian Cinema. He has made a memorable romantic movie in every decade since the 80s that gets burnt in our psyche. “Mouna Raagam”, “Gitanjali”, “Sakhi” and now “Ok Bangaram” joins that league. Even if the plot is not something unfamiliar and the treatment lacks wow factor at few places, the finesse of the film with all the visuals, the rich music of AR Rahman and the tracks between the lead pairs (there are two pairs in fact) transport you into trance. Roping in such technical stalwarts like PC Sreeram, Sharmistha Roy, Sreekar Prasad and Rahman, Mani can heave a sigh of relief that his product, after a long gap, will taste some success at the box office. 

Indeed the plot is mundane and much cited on silver screens - a live-in relationship between two mature professionals - Aadi  (Dulquar Salmaan) and Tara (Nitya Menen) who are spectacularly in love with each other while keeping an eye on their fledgling careers. Dulquar is a gaming guru who conceptualises  imaginative online games that rake in the millions and Nitya is an architect who is seeking her Masters in Paris. Dulquar stays as a PG with an elderly couple  - Prakash Raj and Leela Samson. Love grows between the two young pros with faultiness often arising from live-in expectations. It goes through a roller-coaster ride before a familiar climax with many moments of truth inspired by the geriatric couple of Mrs and Mr Ganapathy (played by Prakash Raj and Leela Samson). But Mani Ratnam doesn’t believe in a riot of love without a cause, so you see a romantic track with the duress of a success-seeking professional and the affections of your immediate family, however dysfunctional or the care of those who need. In 138 minutes or so, Mani Ratnam’s old magic of story-telling returns without any temptations of narcissism of the craft or visuals that rush up your adrenaline. With good screenplay, stunning visuals and a commendable starcast, the movie deserves a once-watch even if some familiarity with his treatment creeps in at many points. In many ways, the old film “Sakhi” still remains unsurpassed because of the beauty of a sober plot that has many uncharacteristic twists and pathos moments. 

Yet, “OK Bangaram” scores high because of the freshness of the pair. Nitya Menen takes the cake in the movie with an effortless performance that will win hearts, she is at once vulnerable yet measured, cute yet cold-blooded with her mother, innocent but also volatile in moods. Wearing dresses that she might wear on a day of no-shooting, Nitya strikes a delicate balance with versatility and grace unbelievable for a South heroine. The only thing that takes away marks in her performance is the  inconsistency in her characterisation; she first turns down a lover who is interested in her estate but with Aadi, she gets distracted all the time falling for the same tricks that she believes boys play before getting fresh with girls. Aadi, played by Dulquar Salmaan is exciting. The boy who won all the hearts in “Bangalore Days” is the most promising youngster that Mani Ratnam has re-launched for an audience far removed from Mollywood (Malayalam movies). Whether in control of emotions in love or losing it, in anger and poise, camaraderie at work or sympathy for an elderly landlady, Dulquer smarts ahead with a great show of talent - something that comes easily to him from father and superstar Mammooty. His characterisation is the most consistent and worthy of a protagonist coming of age. Kudos to Actor Nani for lending his inimitable voice to Dulquer in the  Telugu version. Nani’s voice has amplified Dulquer’s character for the masses - it is a great idea and a good sporting gesture. Normally, Aalap Raju or Srinivas Murty are the only voices you hear for all Tamil heroes in Telugu versions but this is a delectable experiment - must be at Dil Raju’s bidding who produced the movie in Telugu. Prakash Raj gets such a meaty role in this film, after “Iruvar”that he should thank his stars for a spotless role which will re-ignite his career in that space where he was virtually unchallenged. If Jayasudha stole the show in “Sakhi”, Prakash Raj did it in “Ok Bangaram” with shades of “SVSC” performance. Leela Samson gives a soulful performance as a lady losing her way in life with Alzeimer’s. Her lines linger on and give the depth to an otherwise elementary story. 

What endears the film is Mani Ratnam’s mature handling of the themes and visuals he wants us to go home with. He could have been tempted to show cliched scenes of fights to elevate heroism or sympathy to pad up the love story etc.but he shows great restraint by sticking to responsible and refined cinema. In the film, for example, the heroine’s mother uses her influence to subject the hero to police torture. Any other director would have shown the scene  - right from Shankar to Rajamouli but Mani dismisses it as an aside plainly told by the hero to the heroine, matter-of-factly. Similarly, a love story doesn’t fire up without a customary item song or a drunken scene or fights. Cleverly, quite deftly, Mani shows none of these banalities - instead, he uses the montage of the gaming animation to show stunts and other chutzpah - skip it or snooze, the story doesn’t jar you. Heroism for the heroes and glamor for the heroines - both these get redefined by Mani in the film, a lesson somewhere for master manipulators of emotions in Tollywood. It is good that successive failures and biting criticisms of Mani’s previous films have made him mellow in his love with the craft versus attempt to tell a good story. 

Mani has told a good story with a familiar message though - with conventional trappings and some deja vu moments of bitterness and celebration in love and life. But the effort shows and leaves you with a nice aftertaste unlike some of his forgettable films in the last decade. Helping him to get a breather again are technicians who worked closely with him in several films. PC Sreeram, that ace cinematographer proves  a nonpareil when it comes to catching fire with screenshots. This time, he choses Mumbai’s lesser-highlighted imagery - torrential rains, jerky rides  on bike, high seas of the Arabian Sea with up-close shots of the ships that keep a vigil on the coast at night and many other shots like that. Sreeram’s work is itself paisa vasool for the film and makes it above-average viewing. Of course, his lighting is legendary - and while he makes the lead pair sizzle in their chemistry and screen presence, he has highlighted the old pair in the moods that Mani wanted them to be in, Leela Samson’s shrinkage from a carnatic musician to a forlorn patient is captured well by Sreeram as also the shots in the trains in which lot of Mani’s films revel. AR Rahman’s music has been a chart-buster before the film released, now it will egg you on more since the film is a treat to watch. With nine songs rich in variety and orchestration, Rahman has given the season’s best songs and BGM. And Mani hasn’t fully done justice to their picturisation;  he hasn’t subtracted though from the music with his visual output. Visually, the song on the gaming concepts that greets you on titles has the raciest groove in the score. The carnatic  number sung by Chitra is the only song abruptly cut short by Mani. Otherwise, almost three or four songs which are good audio tracks are extended in the second half which increase the hummability of the songs. Songs by Rahmanand the music co-scored by Rahman and another troupe take the experience to a new high. Mani’s imagination is not commensurate with Rahman’s perceptible instrumentation reserved for “Mani Sir’s films”. The only song that stands out is the duet in the lodge in Ahmedabad where the young lovers feel the physical temptations of love but don’t give in yet. Dubbing-wise, you don’t feel this is coming from Tamil, the quality and the Telugu diction  is so good. Also, references to local towns and a couple of politicians make it credible. Sirivennala’s lyrics make the Telugu songs enchanting and classy compared to some of the hopelessly inapt lyrics penned in Mani’s previous films dubbed from Tamil. Instead of using words like “Gunde Kinda Needocche” and “Kuriseti Gadiyaaram”, Sirivennala uses lilting words which are also sensible. Dialogues by Kiran are in the same metric length of Mani Ratnam - crisp and business-like. Despite many moments where you feel the lag of a director who is not able to outgrow his favourite love scenes and hurrah moments, “Ok Bangaram” will get Mani’s fans happy again. Here’s a master who gets his mojo back. It is not brilliant and not the best of his movies - but he re-presents the timeless paradigms of skin-deep love for another generation confused in online chats and careerist obsessions with reinvigorated craft and squeaky clean touch of class. Watchable, for sure.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

#ManiRatnam #OkBangaram #OKadalKanmani #NityaMenen #DulquerSalmaan #ARRahman #PCSreeram #Tollywood #Kollywood #MovieReviews #DilRaju #PrakashRaj #Nani #OKBangaramReview 

February 2, 2013

"Kadali" Telugu / "Kadal" Tamil film review

“Kadali” (Telugu) or “Kadal” (Tamil) has been touted as a comeback vehicle for Mani Ratnam and a launch-pad for star-children Gautam Karthik and Thulasi Nair. It may turn out better for the newcomers but Mani Ratnam has given a disappointing film. “Kadali” means “ocean” and for the first time after “Sakhi” and movies like “Mouna Ragam” and “Gitanjali”, he has gone back to love story which got him maximum adulation. However, Mani Ratnam’s film leaves a lot to be desired because of gaps in characterization, screenplay, pace and overall lack in entertainment values.



The story is set in a fishing hamlet where the villagers care a damn about Church and God. When Aravind Swamy (Sam Fernando) sets foot in the village church as a Father, it is in shambles and un-serviceable. He slowly builds trust and respect for himself, God and folks taking their religion seriously. He shows restraint, patience, understanding and enormous love for all those who confess to him and Church. He starts doting on Thomas (Gautham Karthik) whose mother dies and father abandons him. Thomas grows up as an energetic fisherman and becomes a son to Father Sam. Enter Beatrice, a Nurse-in-the-making on the other shore who bumps into Thomas and instantly connect with each other. Meanwhile, Burgsman (played by Action King Arjun) re-enters the village as a warlord who is a terror in the village, he extorts, terrorizes, smuggles and kills people for a living. His first entry alongwith Aravind Swamy at the film’s outset dazzles; the scene carries the seeds of conflict between the two more like a battle between Evil and Good, Satan and God. The entire movie then is a double-pack sandwich: the rift between Aravind Swamy and Arjun who both influence Thomas into toeing their respective briefings on one side and the love story between Beatrice and Thomas on the other. Had Mani concentrated on the love story only or the conflict between the Good and the Evil, it could have got better. Instead of giving a simple story, Mani Ratnam complicates the plot and hasn’t really delivered on all fronts.


The problem is also not a plot that smacks of Christian traditions. One can argue that from the first frame till the end, Mani Ratnam showcases the Christian traditions of Church and religion in full glory with a built-in bias. I have no problem with that because he wanted to make a film on aspects of Christianity where followers are torn between temptations of Christ vs. temptations of Satan the evil. But at several time in the film, the angles of cinematographer Rajiv Menon and the director’s eye point towards an explicit portrayal of a religion and its traditions rather than moving the story forward. He should have taken care to make a plot where atleast some characters have names from other religions. There is a scene in which the heroine steps into a boat driven by the hero and alongwith her ten girls step inside. All the ten girls’ names belong to a religion. I don’t understand what made Mani Ratnam give such a blatant treatment. I trust him to do an honest job as a director and not be influenced by anybody for extraneous considerations towards promoting a particular sect or religion so obviously. I have nothing against that too as a bit later in the film, I found it intriguing to learn about the traditions of baptizing, confessions, seminars etc. and also realized that most films are actually made for the majority with names like Rajesh and Gopi and Gita and Anjali so I could empathise with how others feel when there’s no inclusive approach to giving a universal evocative appeal. But as a honest critic, I felt this and thought it must be highlighted as many others may not even comment on such issues. In the 80s, Bapu made a film like “Rajadhi Raju” which shows a conflict between Satan and God more explicitly and all characters are biblical names. Bapu garu were quite honest in admitting the film is financed by Christian producers and the names and characterizations were all representative of a creed. Over 150 minutes of slow-paced screenplay and a half-baked story later, I felt a bit cheated by the dishonest approach in over-highlighting a particular religion. No offence meant here, please don’t get me wrong. In the 80s, “Seethakoka Chilaka” also portrayed an intense love story in the backdrop of a Church father but never made it look like a religious movie either. Here, Mani Ratnam portrays a parable in modern format and doesn’t give any hint of it in promotions so I failed to understand his compulsions.



As for the story, Arjun steals the show every time he appears on screen. He provides the lightest and most entertaining moments in the film with his versatile acting. Aravind Swamy also does his part with great conviction and honesty. Newcomers hold lot of promise together especially Gautam Karthik. Gautam is handsome like his father Karthik and has the right personality to make it big in films. Thulasi looks more elderly than her sister Karthika on screen but has the looks to make some impact in Kollywood. AR Rahman’s sound track and music give a good lift to the many moods of the film. Out of the two duets, Mani Ratnam uses one song “Gunjukunna” as a background song while showing dialogues between the young couple and the other song “pacchani thota” which is superbly shot is shot on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Mauritius, not on the side where all the story action is happening. That looked out of place but the song is a visual treat and compliments ARR’s music well. Rajeev Menon’s cinematography is breath-taking and elevates the feel of the film and its music to oceanic levels. I hope someone covers the craft of a cinematographer of his caliber one day to tell us how he gets into the mind of the director so well in giving the unseen eye such riveting attention of various visuals. Editor A.Sreekar Prasad is one of the few technicians who alongwith AR Rahman gets Mani’s recurring patronage for the last several films. But I wonder if that’s working now for him. Sreekar who is known to be now part of story discussions and film shooting sequences should detach himself from the director if the final output has to get better and watchable; this is not worth 150 minutes of footage and many scenes and even characters could have conveniently got left out. Dialogues are sharp but quite serious.



Mani Ratnam has taken three years to make this film. I wonder whether he has learnt or introspected on his previous works which failed to fire before completing this film. A sabbatical of three years should have done wonders to Mani’s original sense of story-telling but there is still no freshness in his frames. Most directors have, like any human being, three senses – visual sense (Bapu, Shantaram), sound sense (Sreenu Vaitla, K Balachander) and kinesthetic sense (sense of touch and feel – BharatiRaja, Balu Mahendra, Vishwanath, Subhash Ghai). Mani Ratnam falls somewhere between visual sense and kinesthetic sense but over the years since “yuva” and “Guru” and “Raavan”, his directorial prowess hasn’t kept pace with the lagging attention of his audiences who have outgrown the visuals he thinks the world will still love to see while ignoring the crying needs of entertainment, comedy and drama – which make a film click at the box office. In his obsession with crafty technicians and faultless film grammar, Mani Ratnam has developed a huge credibility gap and an execution gap between what’s on his mind and what’s the cinematic output he expects to get received as. Faultlines can also be blamed also for the teams that co-opt for his movies – everybody calls him “Sir” and everybody is overawed by him – there is no critical input coming at the shooting stage. I also have a bone to pick with him in Telugu dubbing, he has shown scant respect for the sensibilities of Telugu audiences over the years – audiences who love his films and his style, audiences who lapped up “Gitanjali” and made it one of his biggest hits, audiences who gave their first positive verdicts on films like “Gharshana” (“Agni Nakshatram”) and “Nayakudu” (“Nayagan”). Mani Ratnam, from what is reported, hasn’t treated Telugu audiences with the same veneer they look upto him with. He shows some town in Tamil Nadu with Tamil name and the dialogue says “its Bheemli”. Look at the lyrics in one song “Gunjukanna”, it is atrociously translated by Vanamali. Roughly translated from Tamil without respecting the beautiful nuances of Telugu language, it says,”Kudiseti gadiyaaram = a clock which rains” or “Palemo perugu laaga indaaka padukunde = milk is sleeping like curd”). What kind of crap is that which even bears the stamp of endorsement from AR Rahman. From the beginning, look at the producers who backed Mani Ratnam’s projects dubbed into Telugu, not one producer has gone back to him after one or two films – CL Narasimha Reddy (“Gitanjali”), MuraliMohan (“Iddaru”), Sunkara Madhu Murali (“Yuva”) and now Gemini Film Circuits. So, you see, he is investing in his catalogue of films but is not getting a consistent producer because of a dwindling reception at the box-office. He only invests in those Telugu dubbed films which he feels will click at the box office. The last time it worked was "Sakhi" and the bad run continues. This is more patience for an audience who adore Mani but he hasn't reciprocated their respect and treats them like a bid market. Mani Ratnam and his craft have been discussed at length by Baradwaj Rangan in his book “Conversations with Mani Ratnam” (a review I will deal with later). But for now, “Kadali” is a disaster and doesn’t deserve a rating better than 2 out of 5.

June 23, 2010

"Villain" Movie Review or "Raavanan" Movie Review


"Raavanan" or "Villain" movie tries to break new ground in showing villain as hero and hero as villain. It assembles an ace team who are at Mani "Sir"s beck and call - AR Rehman, Santosh Sivan and a starcast that's contracted to give super-profits even if they show up once. `Ramayana' comes alive in this movie and throws up some dazzling moments - but Mani is losing touch with evocative themes and entertainment in the pursuit of cinematic excellence and artistry.  No wonder they are not firing at BO. Vikram shows more versatility than Aiswarya.

"Jailor" (Telugu/Tamil) Movie Review: Electrifying!

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