Raavan

I have always been a big time Mani Ratnam fan!! The adulation for the man is not merely from his movies alone, though of course his repertoire is the finest in modern Indian cinema, it also stems from the enigma that he is. You never hear much of him apart from when a movie of his is due for release. Until the screening itself, the story line is only debated upon and never known. And each time the storyline is so unusual, you know never know what to expect next.

His latest movie Raavan is no different to this genre. There are various people debating the storyline and reckoning it to the legendary epic. With the music released for the movie the buzz has grown phenomenally. There are speculations about the storyline floating around and every day we hear a new line.

As for me I do not want to even think what the movie would be about. All I want to do is enjoy ARR’s fabulous rustic compositions and play each of the songs in my mind’s eye until the dawn of the day when I can go to a theatre and enjoy the film.

From every movie of Mani sir (as he is called in the industry) I have a particular scene or tune that continues to stir in my head. I yet recall the phenomenal picturization of Thungatha Vizhigal from Agni Natchatiram, the haunting title score of Kannathil Muthamital, the sharp dialogues of Nayagan, the peppy music during the flashback (for Karthick) in Agni Natchatiram, Mohan Lal peeping out of the top of the building to see thousands of people waiting to get a glance of him in Iruvar, Gurukanth Desai’s speech to the committee after his illness in Guru and many many more.

This time round again I am sure there are going to be a lot many impactful scenes and I am waiting to see first hand whats in store. This is almost the first time Mani sir is making a full fledged bi lingual (apart from Yuva), though from the times of Bombay most of his movies have been Hindi / Tamil releases, he always used the same actors. This time around we have two sets of actors for the versions and am equally excited about both!!