Skip to main content

Conversations with Maniratnam - Baradwaj Rangan


Baradwaj Rangan (BR) is one of the finest critics in India. He is academic, sincere, brilliant and not politically correct. He is one of the few critics in India who knows the syntax of how to review commercial films. I read and watch his reviews and interviews every week. When I came to know that, BR has written a book about Maniratnam and his movies, I couldn’t resist myself from reading it.
"Conversations With Maniratnam" is a book that tries to bring out the thought process and nuances behind various movies of Maniratnam. The book discusses all the movies of Mani in chronological order.

It took quite a few chapters to get into the groove with this book due to various reasons. First, the book is completely written in a conversational format. It took some time for me to adjust to this as I am used to reading a book in a story format or from a first-person narrative. After seeing so many interviews of BR in Film Companion (Say, his deciphering of Ennai Arindhaal and VTV with Gautam Vasudev Menon ), I didn’t find the freshness in the narrative. It was like, I know Baddy would ask questions like this. One thing to note is that the book was written and published in 2013. The format of his question and answers would have been fresh then. (Still, no one deciphers the movie like him). Secondly, There was a trust lagging between BR and Mani in the initial chapters. The lack of chemistry does come across in the initial chapters, thereby making the few pages very boring. As a result, One of the best works of Maniratnam, Mounaragam, does not get the attention it should have received.
The book did take off after the conversations moved to movie Nayagan. Both Mani and Baddy are quite at home after this. The implicit trust between them improves and as a result, the readers get to see the brilliance of BR(as a critic) and Mani (as a director). There were so many technical aspects discussed in the book especially related to cinematography. For example, the significance of the sun and how the sun was metaphorically used to convey the mood and thoughts were explained brilliantly.
Maniratnam also takes us through how a small idea that is triggered within him has transformed into a full-length movie. For Instance, The way he explained How Alaipayuthe (Saathiya in Hindi) was conceived was wonderful. I also liked when Mani downplays Baddy multiple times when he tried to over-intellectualize the various scenes of the movie. At the end of the book, one could feel that the trust factor between mani and Baddy has improved leaps and bounds. One can’t stop wondering on why the book had a sudden ending. Having said that, the book is a delight for all the Maniratnam fans.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

After the funeral by Agatha Christie

                         Image Courtesy : Amazon Richard Abernethie, a wealthy man, dies at home. All the relatives of Richard gather together to discuss the will during which, Richard’s sister, Cora says Richard is actually murdered. Cora is found dead the next day. Mr Entwhistle, the family solicitor, calls up Poirot and requests him to investigate both the murders. Poirot, as usual, using his little grey cells resolves the murderer. A typical Christie - Poirot murder mystery would be like, a murder is committed and there are 4 to 5 primary suspects. Each suspect has a motive to commit the murder and each of them has something to hide from the investigators. At the end, Poirot dramatically   reveals the murderer (who generally is the least suspect) by gathering all the participants in a room. After the funeral follows the exact typical, tried and tested formula of Agatha. Christie’s love for dysfu...
Post a Comment
Read more

4.50 from Paddington (Miss Marple) - Agatha Christie.

                                     Image Courtesy : Amazon Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy is on a visit to St. Mary Mead to meet her friend Miss Marple in a Train where she sees a man strangling a woman in the adjacent train. She informs the ticket collector who does not believe her. She reached St. Mary Mead and informed  Miss Maple about the murder. Miss Marple decides to find where the body of the dead person is. With the help of train time table and local maps, Miss Marple concludes that Rutherford hall as the possible location of where the body could be hidden. She hires Lucy Eyelesbarrow, an intelligent house keeper, to assist her in finding the body in the Rutherford hall. Mr Crackenthorpe and his family lives in Rutherford Hall. Lucy enters Rutherford Hall as a house keeper and successfully finds the dead body. Who is the dead pe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Strangers on a train - Patricia Highsmith

                                                  Image courtesy : Amazon Strangers on a Train is a psychological thriller about 2 men who accidentally meet each other in a train and how their lives change after that meeting. Guy Haines, an architect, is on a train to meet his unfaithful wife, Miriam, to discuss about his impending divorce with her so that he can marry Anne. He meets Bruno in the train who is completely drunk. Bruno suggests that he would kill Guy’s wife and Guy should kill his father in turn. Guy laughed off his suggestion and proceeds with his life. However, Bruno takes this seriously and kills Guy’s wife and he forces Bruno to honor his commitments of killing his father. Did Guy kill Bruno’s father and what happens after forms the crux of the story. The narrative is dark and the writing ensures that the readers are transpor...
Post a Comment
Read more