MANIRATNAM

Ratnam was born as G. Subramaniam on June 2, 1957, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. After graduating with a degree in commerce from Madras University and an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, he embarked on a career as a management consultant before becoming a filmmaker. He got into film direction with the help of his late brother, film producer G. Venkateswaran.

Career

Mani Ratnam's films often feature realistic, contemporary themes and complex plots. With a career spanning over two decades, he has garnered high acclaim and has been praised for handling serious issues whilst retaining a high entertainment factor in his films. Familial and marital hardships, terrorism, love, class and religious conflict, war, politics, adoption, history and disability are just some of the socio-political issues to have been featured in his films. His movies are generally made in the Tamil language, but are usually also dubbed into other languages like Telugu and Hindi owing to their national appeal. He has also made films in other languages like Hindi, Telugu and Kannada. His first movie was Pallavi Anu Pallavi in 1983 starring Anil Kapoor

The characteristic elements of Mani Ratnam's films include memorable music by notable Indian composers Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman, a strong story line, sharp dialogue and innovative cinematography and art direction. He has worked with the best cinematographers in the country - notably P. C. Sriram, Balu Mahendra, Santosh Sivan, Ravi K. Chandran, Rajiv Menon and the likes.

Awards and Recognition

Widely known for his ability to tread the middle way between artistic cinema and commercial cinema, Ratnam's movies are further noted for their brilliance in technical aspects like art direction, cinematography and background score. His work has come to be recognised nationally and internationally.

In 2002, Mani Ratnam was awarded the Padma Shri[1].

In 1994, a retrospective of his Tamil films was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). His movie Nayagan was part of Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies issued in 2005.[2][3]

Filmography

The following is the list of movies directed by Mani Ratnam. For a lot of these movies, Mani Ratnam is also credited for the Story & Screenplay:

Directorial Credits
Year Film Language Cast Music Director Notes
1983 Pallavi Anu Pallavi Kannada Anil Kapoor, Lakshmi Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Tamil as Oh! Priya Priya
1985 Unaru Malayalam Mohanlal Ilaiyaraaja
1985 Pagal Nilavu Tamil Murali, Revathi Menon, Radhika Sarath Kumar, Sathyaraj Ilaiyaraaja
1985 Idaya Kovil Tamil Mohan, Radha, Ambika, Goundamani Ilaiyaraaja
1986 Mouna Raagam Tamil Mohan, Revathi, Karthik Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Telugu as 'Mouna Raagam
1987 Nayagan Tamil Kamal Haasan, Saranya, Nasser, Janagaraj Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Hindi as Velu Nayakan
Dubbed into Telugu as Nayakudu
1988 Agni Natchathiram Tamil Prabhu, Karthik, Vijayakumar, Prabhu Deva, Amala, Janagaraj, Jayachitra Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Telugu as Gharshana
1989 Geethanjali Telugu Nagarjuna, Girija, Vijayakumar Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Tamil as Idhayathai Thirudathey
Dubbed into Malayalam as Geethanjali
1990 Anjali Tamil Raghuvaran, Revathi, Prabhu, Tarun Kumar, Shamili, Shruti, Saranya Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Telugu as Anjali
1991 Thalapathi Tamil Rajinikanth, Mammooty, Arvind Swamy, Amrish Puri, Sobhana, Bhanupriya, Srividya, Geetha, Jaishankar Ilaiyaraaja Dubbed into Telugu as Dalapati
Dubbed into Hindi as Dal-pati
1992 Roja Tamil Arvind Swamy, Madhubala, Pankaj Kapoor, Nasser, Janagaraj A. R. Rahman Dubbed into English as The Rose
Dubbed into Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi as Roja
1993 Thiruda Thiruda Tamil Prashanth, Anand, Heera Rajgopal, Anu Agarwal, Balasubrahmanyam A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Hindi as Chor Chor
Dubbed into Telugu as Donga Donga
1995 Bombay Tamil Arvind Swamy, Manisha Koirala, Nasser, Prakash Raj A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Hindi and Telugu as Bombay
1997 Iruvar Tamil Mohanlal, Aishwarya Rai, Prakash Raj, Madhubala, Tabu, Revathi, Gouthami, Nasser A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Telugu as Iddaru
1998 Dil Se Hindi Shah Rukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Tamil as Uyire
Dubbed into Telugu as Prema Tho
2000 Alaipayuthey Tamil Madhavan, Shalini, Arvind Swamy, Kushboo, Vivek, Sukumari, Lalitha, Jayasudha, Pyramid Natarajan A. R. Rahman Dubbed into English as Waves
Dubbed into Telugu as Sakhi
2002 Kannathil Muthamittal Tamil Madhavan, Simran, Nandita Das, Keerthana, Prakash Raj, Pasupathy A. R. Rahman Dubbed into English as A Peck on the Cheek
Dubbed into Telugu as Amrutha
2004 Aayitha Ezhuthu Tamil Madhavan, Surya Sivakumar, Siddharth Narayan, Meera Jasmine, Esha Deol, Trisha, Bharathiraja A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Telugu as Yuva
Dubbed into English as The Three Dots
2004 Yuva Hindi Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukherjee, Esha Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri A. R. Rahman
2007 Guru Hindi Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Mallika Sherawat, Mithun Chakraborty A. R. Rahman Dubbed into Tamil as Guru
Dubbed into Telugu as Gurukanth
2008 Lajjo Hindi Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor A. R. Rahman Shelved for now.

Non-Director Credits

Mani Ratnam established Madras Talkies for film production during the shoot of Iruvar. Mani Ratnam had earlier produced Nayakan, Roja and Thiruda Thiruda under his personal name. All movies directed by Mani Ratnam subsequent to Iruvar has been produced through Madras Talkies. Apart from production, Mani Ratnam also has written story and screenplay for movies directed by others.

* Indira (1996) - Screenplay (Movie was directed by his wife Suhasini)
* Gayam (1993) - Story & Screenplay (Telugu Movie)
* Aasai (1995) - Producer
* Nerrukku Ner (1997) - Producer (Madras Talkies)
* Dumm Dumm Dumm (2001) - Story & Screenplay
* Saathiya (2002) - Screenplay (Movie is a re-make of Alaipayuthey and was directed by his assistant Shaad Ali) and Producer (Madras Talkies)
* Five Star (2003) - Producer (Madras Talkies)

Stage

* Netru, Indru, Naalai (2006)

Family

* Mani's father Gopal Ratnam Iyer was a film producer.
* Mani's brother G. Venkateswaran, popularly known as G.V. was also a film producer who committed suicide.
* Mani married to actress Suhasini, niece of Kamal Haasan and they have a 15-year old son Nandan.
* Mani co-founded and co-runs the independent production company Madras Talkies along with his brother G. Srinivasan.
* G. Srinivasan passed away in Manali on the 27th May 2007 by slipping on the gorge.