GURU of Indian Cinema

Filmmaker and Dil Se dialogue writer Tigmanshu Dhulia talks up what gives Mani Ratnam that extra edge.


Is filmmaking an art form or a money-making exercise? Unfortunately, Indian mainstream cinema can only be said to be about “filmmaking in the time of cholera”. 2006 was a boom year for the industry financially, but as I see it, the movies released in 2006 were successful but not sensible. The only two which both scored at the box office and were worth watching were Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rang De Basanti. The rest were, to put it plainly, frivolous crap.

Is it just me or is there actually a problem with our films? Has audience taste sunk? Or, since the people must visit the temples of modern India once a week and watch whatever is offered, is it the multiplex formula that’s responsible for the decline in story-telling? Big questions and not ones that can easily be answered here; in any case, this piece is not about the demise of good filmmaking in India but about the only filmmaker who is still trying to hold high the spirit of cinema: Mani Ratnam.

Mani is an auteur in the fullest sense of the word. I am not a critic but a filmmaker and I know what it takes to make a film that is original, personal and not frivolous. He’s a doer and a workaholic but then so am I and so are many other directors. What then is it that makes this man so unique?

I think Mani holds all the cards there are in cinema because he is someone who knows how to use the tricks of the trade as well as his own desires. His body of work today clearly indicates that he has grown beyond hits and flops. He is India’s Martin Scorsese — some of his films might fail commercially, but he commands enormous respect from technicians, actors and those in the field. Anyone who wants to polish his skills as an artist should work with the man.

Let’s talk about his craft. Mani’s trademark is attractive realism, his films stand mid-way between commercial and alternative cinema, he is real but not boring, he takes a moral stand but is never preachy, whatever he does is done with great precision, determination and passion. You will never see shoddy camerawork or slack editing in any of his films and nobody shoots songs better than he does.

His central protagonists are generally drawn from the middle class; his heroes and heroines are usually people displaced from familiar settings, sent out into an alien atmosphere. This theme and its attendant conflicts dominate most of his films, from Mauna Ragam and Nayakan to Roja, Bombay, Dil Se and now Guru.

Mani is also known for his strong heroines. Never dependent on the hero, they take decisions, are active and drive the plot forward. But the area which interests me most is the way he handles romance. Sheer magic! We all do romantic scenes, but Mani’s are a combination of vulnerability and sexual undertone and seem utterly free of artificiality. The actors look comfortable and real because they are able to surrender completely to the director. It’s a respect Mani’s earned not by being a powerful filmmaker but a talented one.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Mani as a dialogue writer in Dil Se, his first Hindi film. I met him first with my guru Shekhar Kapoor shortly after the release of Bombay. I did not like Bombay too much and the first instruction Shekhar gave me before we were about to meet him was: “Don’t say anything about his films, he hates criticism.” My enthusiasm crushed, I had to sit quietly and watch the two friends talk about life. The next time I met Mani professionally was when my dear friend Shaad Ali introduced me to him and he offered me Dil Se to write. I jumped at the offer but remembered my guru’s instruction, and so we discussed world cinema and cricket but never Mani’s films.

Even though I am well-acquainted with the entire repertoire of his work, and with a bit of the person as well, I must say, however, that I still do not understand where Mani stands politically. Till Guru happened, I used to think he was more Left-leaning; his stand in Dil Se and in Kannathil Muthamittal shows that he has a fine political sensibility and great compassion for human feelings. But Guru? A Leftist leaves Aishwarya stranded and she eventually marries a capitalist? A man is accused of rank corruption and he gets off with just a speech? As a fan, I wish Mani had handled this the way The Godfather does, giving us someone who is both a family man and on the other side of the law.

Mani deals with real issues and makes fine films out of them. The moments are wonderful and the performances great, but when dealing with reality, one must take a stand. Sitting in the audience after Guru one feels like saying, “Sir, I know you give enormously to your work, but since you’ve shown us the path, we expect more. We’re waiting for someone like you to explode so that something inside us gets a push — push the button, sir, there’s no-one else to do it, the Govind Nihalanis and the Shyam Benegals have become too complacent. If it comes from you, we won’t just stand and watch, we’ll be freed to react.”
And, that said, I’d add, “I know how much you hate criticism. So, let me wind up this piece and say adieu.”

Apart from being a profound filmmaker, Mani is a strong human being. He is not afraid of taking up subjects that would scare any other director — Bombay is a clear example, as is Iruvar, loosely based on Jayalalithaa, MGR and Karunanidhi’s lives. Very few people are aware that he was attacked after he made Bombay. A man threw a bomb at his house one morning and Mani, who was in his slippers and reading the newspaper, ran after him and gave him a good chase. After that incident, he was given security, but he always hated being under guard.

Mani is a very reserved person and people at his office speak in whispers. He’s a non-smoker, an occasional beer drinker, an avid sports enthusiast and an eggetarian (though I remember taking him to Kake da Hotel in Delhi once, where he had a helping of their glorious butter chicken). It is said that even after he had suffered a stroke during the making of Yuva, his enthusiasm was so high that he wanted to have a video assist from the sets cabled through to his room so he could continue directing the film. That is the difference between us mortals and him. We love cinema, he is mad about it.

My salute to the guru of Indian cinema. Keep up the good work, Mani sir.