Mani Ratnam needs no introduction... most of us will agree that he is one of the finest directors of indian cinema. I have been a great fan of Mani Ratnam and always had this desire to own the entire collection of his movies with me, especially the tamil movies. Now am glad that I have about 10 of them :) About 3 weeks back I watched these 2 tamil movies - "Mouna Ragam" and "Kannathil Muthamittal".... now I am an even bigger fan of his!
Mouna Ragam - means 'silent music' or 'silent symphony'. It can be regarded as one of his best movies ever - featuring Revathi, Mohan and Karthik.. all classy actors. Music by Illayaraja is brilliant. (for those who haven't heard...the title song of Cheeni Kum has the same music as that of the title song of Mouna Ragam.. ) The story is a simple one... which is probably told many times in lots of movies... about a woman is forced into an arranged marriage and lives with her husband in delhi... but is still in love with her boyfriend, a gangster who was shot dead in front of her at the registrar office on the day they were supposed to get married. The screenplay, direction and cinematography are AWESOME ... no wonder that it won a lot of awards. Supposedly this movie is also his first commercially success one. If you are a fan of south indian movies and mani ratnam especially, then this is a must watch..
Kannathil Muthamittal - means 'A peck on the cheek'. A recent movie featuring Madhavan, Nandita Das and Simran... again all classy actors.. I felt it's a very different story... deals with the emotions of an adopted child (i guess she is around 10 yrs) , who feels betrayed and goes in search of her biological mother. The story is set in the backdrop of the riots and militancy in SriLanka. The theme of the movie is very thought provoking.... There is no need for me to say anythign about the direction, cinematography etc... he won the "Swarna Kamal" award for this film, from the President APJ Abdul Kalam...
The best part is that each of his movies has a unique theme... and each one is different in its own way..... He is also known to extract best and natural performances from child actors... Shamili in Anjali and Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittal both won National awards. It's also intersting to note that he has a kid in almost all of his movies... not necessarily as the main character...
His movies that I've seen so far and admired...
- Anjali (nominated to the Oscars..... always tops my list)
- Roja
- Alai Payuthe
- Bombay
- Uyirae (Dil Se in hindi)
- Kannathil Muthamittal
- Mouna Ragam
- Yuva (Aayitha Ezuthu)
- Guru
The ones in the pipeline.. that I am soon going to watch...
- Iruvar
- Agni Nakshatram
- Nayagan
- Pallavi Anupallavi (Kannada movie starring Anil kapoor)
- Thiruda Thiruda
- Dumm Dumm Dumm
- Geethanjali
5 comments:
I think Yuva and Dil Se, at least the hindi versions, were pretty bad. Nothing much to admire there apart from few of the songs from both the movies...
yup.. i agree. the hindi versions are pretty bad. But the same ones in tamil are quite nice.. the actors are pretty good. Though its the same story thats remade, i guess something is lost out in the process...
Nice & Informative post,
I am regular reader of ur blog.
I am also a great fan of Maniratnam. There is a movie called Geetanjali in telugu starring Nagarjuna and Girija.I am not sure if it was dubbed into Tamil. It is also a wonderful movie. If you get a chance watch it.
Nice Read.
btw, does [Kannathil Muthamittal] mean 'A peck on the cheek'?
It roughly translates to'A peck in the vicinity of (eye) brow', I reckon.
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