Topic started by Keemu (@ uranus.nationwide.com) on Tue Apr 18 11:29:17 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Has ManiRathnam lost his creativity, imagination, new ideas? What happened to the MR who directed the mega movies like Mouna raagam, Nayagan etc? When Dhalapathy was released Vikatan interviewed him and asked the same question.(I remember it was by Mathan) MR blasted out at the interviewer. but i guess that did the magic and produced the results; then came Roja, Bombay. It's high time someone reminded him of the same question.

Responses:

• From: mr fan (@ 202.188.111.118) on: Wed Apr 19 02:50:09 EDT 2000
  
  keemu....i think ALAI PAYUTHE is a decent movie....MR touch is still there....so there is no question he lost his touch....
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 129.252.22.221) on: Thu Apr 20 18:54:55 EDT 2000
  
  But MR has definitely lost the pulse of the audience. alaipayuthe is heading towards another flop. source: rediff
  
  
• From: ROTFL!!! (@ ptl-cache6.jaring.my) on: Thu Apr 20 21:55:28 EDT 2000
  
  rediff sonna, athu aandavan sonna maathiri...
  
  
• From: bb (@ grieg.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Fri Apr 21 01:00:38 EDT 2000
  
  MR's best movies were the underrated non-superhits, like iruvar, anjali. in AP, he has tried to be as commercial as possible, which is definitely not wrong (after all, we accepted shankar whose commercial intentions sticks out like a sore thumb). MR is too talented to fade out of the film industry. i very much doubt if AP is a flop. as far as i heard, it is a decent hit.
  
  
• From: madrasman (@ ) on: Tue Jun 26 02:31:07
  
  Dear Guys,
  don't underrate ManiRathnam. he is a trend setter
  in tamil movies like Sridhar, k.balachander &
  BharathiRaja. Stories which are highly cotemporary and youthful are the hall marks of MR. His story narration style is par exellence.for me, his best ever movie is "Mouna Ragam".Now, his "Alaipayuthe" which is a superhit movie,is like a cool breeze in a sunny afternoon. TheGreat & highly talented Manirathnam has resurfaced in Alaipayuthe.
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 164.164.79.36) on: Thu Jul 5 06:56:02
  
  yeah guys MR is a trend setter i agree.that is a fact only!!For the tamil film industry which believed that shouting the lungs out is acting(ignoring the visual possibilities),MR showed the way with minimum acting and least dialogues.
  Power of visuals was evident in his films only and he is the trend setter.
  But u take his very best movies.1)Nayakan - a god father clone but with his own insights. an un precedented hit interms of per'mance,story,direction wht not ? released in 1987.BO verdict - hit.
  2) iruvar - for the first time in tamil screen maniratnam showed to the whole tamil cine goers wht is meant by deliberate underplay - thro mohanlal.released in 1996.BO verdict - Flop!!!
  3) Dalapathi - rajani ACTED in that film and a good one.
  3) Anjali,mouna ragam,agni nakshatram - 2 diff genres but directorial mastery over the medium was there.
  
  Now dont tell me roja ,bombay and dilse r great moviesIt was nothing less than mere Soap opera and sensation carefully drawn out to jerk tears from the audiences and thereby end up making money!!Same logic as the mega serials in TV nowadays goes.
  
  can anybody explain wht was great abt alaipayuthey ?Just another ordinary love story with a minutely diff treatment!!All the routine maniratnam visuals were faithfully included there like presence of children during marriage,Old ladies dancing etc..
  
  BTW can any one tell me where in tamil nadu do people dance during marriages ? I want to go there and see them ;-)!!
  
  And also i have never understood oine term ? Wht do people mean when they say mani ratnam touch ?
  can anybody expalain that so that i can try to understand that ?
  
  I will sum up my arguement with these words!!
  An ultimately talented director with loads of creativity but he himself spoiled it by going after cheap soap operas,sentiments and sensationalism and ended up taking superfluous films!!Wht a WASTE of Talent ?
  
  
• From: ash (@ 210.186.61.91) on: Thu Jul 5 09:21:18
  
  ANACONDA WINS THE BEST PRIZE FOR THE GAY AWARD...
  
  PEOPLE...ANACONDA IS GAY...I AM SAD TO SAY.
  
  AND GANESH...HUH, HE IS A LESBIAN.
  
  THAT IS WHY THESE DUMBOS HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO EXCEPT CRITICISE AND CONDEMN OTHERS.
  
  
• From: Misguided Soul (@ ip254.toronto107.dialup.canada.psi.net) on: Thu Jul 5 20:50:00
  
  Moron ash (@ 210.186.61.91),
  this proves your disability... don't cust & paste
  your writings... try to use your fingers.... I MEAN...
  
  Ganesh.
  
  
• From: bharath (@ 172.155.91.169) on: Thu Jul 5 22:41:45
  
  Hi,
  
  i have posted my analysis of the current manirathnam. I have writen a lot abt my analysis of maniratnam in another thread. "does manirathnam deserve to be called a good director".
  pls look at that thread also.
  
  anyway here is my analysis....
  
  In my frank opinion and I kind of like Manirathnam. After Roja when he started his own production house. Things started going a little bit awry for him. I used to compare it with Michael jackson, when his career started spiralling down after he went into his own production .
  
  I think if I divide his career into 2 halves
  
  1) Mouna raagam - G.V
  2) Nayakan - G.V
  3) Ithayathai thirudathey - G.V
  4) Agni Natchathram - G.V
  5) Anjali - G.V
  6) Thalapathi - G.V
  7) roja - Kavithalaya
  
  His second life as a producer director
  
  8) Thiruda Thiruda - aalayam
  9) Bombay - madras talkies
  10)Iruvar - madras talkies
  11) Dilse - madras talkies & ram gopal varma & sekhar kapoor
  12) Alaipayuthey - madras talkies.
  
  None of the movies in the second half compares to the commercial sucess of the first half.
  
  Quality wise Mouna Ragam and Iruvar are parallels
  Commercial results wud show Roja and Bombay as parallels.
  
  His screen play started to wilt after Roja. Thiruda Thiruda was a screenplay disaster, although technically ahead of times. It might've had PCS doin his best cinematography and also had ARR's best album till date. BUt I guess the re-union with PCS was more of a distraction rather than a plus point.
  
  Bombay cud have been a good movie, but the pre-movie hype, which I think was the first time mani was creating news b4 the movie, was a huge distraction. This was the first of the many pre-movie hypes that mani had to endure/create/suffer what ever... anyway the movie was visibly riped apart by sundry politicians and censor. Mani's megalomania was not going according to plan and the resultant second half of the movie was redundant unplanned , containing good ideas but poorly executed.
  
  So the sequence of Mani's post-interval loss of narrative stamina was extended to 2 with the first being thiruda thiruda where the the first half flew like a breeze and the 2nd half was confusing to say the least.
  
  Then came Iruvar which in my opinion is Mani's best history. Many peop call it a perverted version of history. Well I call it Mani's view of history slightly distorted due to practical movie considerations!!!! It is impossible to give an elaborated version of 60 year long histroy and it is impossible to record well known allegations and secrets as facts in the movie. In a collection of facts nanny's tales and koovam side rumors Mani gave the best combo he cud. Mohan Lal and prakash raj gave a sturling performance. ARR a retro music to remember. It was a flawless direction and the movie had planning written all over it.
  
  Dilse: to simply put it- too many cooks spoil the broth. mani, sekhar kapoor, r.g.varma, sharukh, ARR, santosh sivan, North east india terrorist problems. Too many big issues for 1 movie to handle. The movie was unplanned totally depended on sensationalism. Too much techie oriented to the point of movie not proceeding at all. Looked extremely unreal and had a very abrupt ending. FOr people who saw it in tamil "chayya chayya" was sukwinder tamil "kolai" and sharukh khan's arvindh sami tamil was sick.
  
  Alaipayuthey: mani in a conservative mode. went abt telling a story that wud gurantee minimum results. good music, fresh faces and PCS cinematography. no megalomaniac stories that wud overflow mani's cup. So the movie did expectedly decently. I dont think its a manio movie. he was giving himself some breathing space in a life that had begun to go awry
  
  The other strange defect that i noticed mani doing was recasting, which he used to avoid b4 revathi being the only person to act in 3 mani movies was no more an exception. the sickening recast of arvind sami in thalapathi, roja, bombay, voice in dilse and alaipayuthey made it look bad. a.sami is an average actor who aspires to be sophisticated. cramming the viewers with2 much of him was irritating.
  
  well i wud personally say Mani-ARR and Mani-IR was an equally effective combo with mani-ARR being slightly better. but Mani-pcs was far better than mani-s.sivan or any other person.
  
  The first 7 *hit* movies of mani showed him as a powerful narrator who surprised people. Now many people r following his trnd so he has to change and set new trends, failing which he will become a trend follower rather than a setter and we all know how and why that will not work for most people.
  
  He should depend upon original story lines( not inspired by hollywood) and new actors. he needs to give stories with non-sensationalism and non-megalomaniac themes. he needs to work his way up a new ladder. the current ladder is stale with no more rungs to climb.
  
  recasting maddy for kannathil muthammital isnt going down well with me. hopefully maddy shouldnt bcom as fat as a.swami. simran is a good change.
  Mani-ARR will continue despite all rumors(which is usual)
  
  
  
  
• From: Raghu (@ 164.164.79.36) on: Fri Jul 6 02:59:20
  
  I agree with 90% of the comments givenh above!!God work mate!!
  Ur insights r really wothe my time!!
  
  
• From: Bharath (@ oneway.convex.com) on: Fri Jul 6 12:41:49
  
  thank you very much raghu! Thank u for ur time also! I guess we both have similarities in our liking towards mani
  
  
• From: Milton (@ 203.223.32.121) on: Fri Jul 6 14:51:27
  
  Mouna ragam and nayagan are great movies and Iruvar was a stupid Movie I have ever seen
  
  
• From: Ash (@ akcf2.xtra.co.nz) on: Sat Feb 9 04:00:38
  
  I love Mani Ratnam ... I think he is great.
  
  
• From: Rose (@ fplanet.singnet.com.sg) on: Sat Feb 9 21:03:29
  
  I think MR should go back to IR for music.
  
  
• From: AR (@ 202.88.155.139) on: Sun Feb 17 11:15:38
  
  A very valid point rosy.I think mani's film lack the impact that they used to have becasue of AR's BG score.
  
  

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