8 Ways Mani Ratnam Shows Cinema Is About The Art And Not The 100 Crore Rat Race

Auteur

noun

A film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author.

Mani Ratnam is one of those few auteurs left who can weave together the montages and create a cinematic realm that manages to thrill you as a child. However, in the artistic intricacies of his craft, there is one thing that he never fails to portray – the story of common people that could be anybody. This is probably why Mani Ratnam could be regarded as an auteur and not just a film-maker.

In this age where the cinematic art has been stripped down to the extent of just a money-making tool, we’re glad to have a few true talents like Mani Ratnam who respect the art and the audiences as well who deserve something more than just brainless entertainment.

1. Diluting lines between commercial and art-house cinema

Indian cinema has always been demarcated with notions of mainstream movies made solely to play to the gallery and “art” films that supposed to be for thinking audience who demand a a perfect melange of aesthetics and and substance – the way art should be.

Mani Ratnam bridges this unnecessary gap with every movie he makes bringing everything a cinephile may ask for.

 

2. You’ll not feel cheated after walking out of the theater

To Mani Ratnam, cinema is still the art of storytelling and not just gimmicks. You walk out of a theater after watching a Mani Ratnam film and you feel like you have something to take home from the brilliant visuals – you will never leave with a feeling that you have yet again been a prey of the corporate sharks who are just turning black money white and making you help them do that by buying tickets to the rubbish they call cinema.

 

3. The stories are deep, socially relevant and incredibly intriguing

As you look at Mani Ratnam’s filmography, you’d know that his stories are handpicked to touch your heart. The scripts are well thought out and there will never be a Mani Ratnam movie that lacks narrative.

Not just any narrative but multi-dimensional stories with socio-economic references with plausible plot-lines that still manage to maintain the cinematic romanticism throughout.

 

4. Ratnam’s character’s are real

Mani Ratnam sketches his characters in a way that makes them one of us and not some larger than life person whom the audience would be unconsciously obliged to aspire to become like. His characters don’t charm the ladies with their six pack abs, they don’t take down half a dozen men single-handedly and neither do they claim to be heroic.

His heroes come from the streets, from the middle class homes, with their sentiments raw, naked and only as articulate as you and I.

 

5. He has a brilliant sense of mise-en-scene

Every single frame of Mani Ratnam movies is as beautiful as a painting. His unparalleled prowess as a cinematographer could be seen in the surreal frames of movie like Dil Se, Roja or Raavan in more recent years.

What makes him even more respectable is that he hardly resorts to high-end art designs and sets to portray such beautiful frames – Ratnam captures the mundane and the ordinary in the most spectacular fashion that only a genius could.

 

6. Nobody can treat item numbers more aesthetically than Mani Ratnam

When Mani Ratnam decides to put an item number in his movie he will make sure that not for a single second may it look out of the context or unnecessary. Most people put in a item number to make more money, not stepping back to make it as crass and vulgar as possible.

Mani Ratnam, on the other hand, uses the opportunity to shoot an item number in away that brilliantly portrays the refined fantasies of the director.

 

7. Doesn’t need unnecessary foreign location shootings

Mani Ratnam would never shoot a movie somewhere in the West just so the film looks a little cooler like most Bollywood director would. A director of huge stature, Ratnam wouldn’t be short of investors more than willing to provide for his foreign shoots but he just doesn’t roll like that.

If Ratnam has to shoot a romantic, dream sequence he’d not go out of the relevance but create mesmerizing visuals shot around the area where the story is based at.

 

8. He is a filmmaker with a responsibility

Probably one of the rarest qualities to be found seen in today’s filmmakers, a social responsibility is the leit motif of all Mani Ratnam films.

His cinema is no way more interesting than the mindless farce made in the name of big banner releases but the only difference is each and every film made by Mani Ratnam would have an underlining message about the burning issues of the society.

Reaching the 100 Crore benchmark can make you good businessmen but it takes a lot more than that to become an artist.