The Magic of Mani Ratnam & Ilaiyaraaja and Their Fallout
Filmmaker CS Amudhan revisits the magical collaboration of Mani Ratnam and Ilaiyaraaja and their unfortunate fallout
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Some years back, TheHindu had organised an Open House with Mani Ratnam & film critic Baradwaj Rangan,the occasion was the launch of their book Conversations with Mani Ratnam. I was invited.
It was a rare opportunity to get into the mind of the most celebrated filmmaker from Tamilif not Indian Cinema, and this was a man who was practically a recluse. Itwould have taken a visit from Scarlett Johansson to keep me away.
The event was classily organised and well-attended but the questions from the floor were mostly reverential and kinda you know…boring.Finally my turn came and I started off by asking why the filmmaker had run through suchan illustrious list of cinematographers (Balumahendra, P.C.Sriram, SanthoshSivan, Madhu Ambat, Rajeev Menon & Manikandan to name a few) when he seemed to get sterling work almost every time. Mani answered that. I then tried to slip in THE question, the one that I was really there for.
Why had he stopped working with Ilaiyaraaja?
There was a collective gasp from the audience and the room went silent. Mani Ratnam just smiled and put me in my place, “Are you a gossip columnist?” he asked and then moved on to other questions. So that was that. We probably will never know.
The time when Mani Ratnam and Ilaiyaraaja were working together, especiallythe early stages, was the ‘Golden Age’ of Tamil cinema. Some of the best on-screen and off-screen talents ever seen in Indian cinema were operating at the height oftheir prowess: Mani Ratnam, Ilaiyaraaja, Kamal Haasan, Vairamuthu (lyricist), PC Sreeram (cinematographer),Thotta Tharani (art director) etc.
It was a heady cocktail of talent & inevitably theymade magic. At the core of this, providing the body and soul were the duo of Mani Ratnam and Ilaiyaraaja.
I would give anything to have been a fly-on-the wall whenthese two first met. Mani Ratnam with an MBA and an unmistakable air of urban suave and the veshti-clad Ilaiyaraaja from Pannaipuram, the hinterlandof Tamil Nadu. How did they communicate? How did they find common ground?
But collaborate they did and how!
No cinema viewer from that era could have been untouched bythe sheer range and depth of emotion they unleashed. From the sad/sweetbeauty of Nilavey Vaa and Pani Vizhum Iravu, to the joyous Raakamma Kaiya Thattu and the epic, operaticproportions of Sundari Kannal Oru Seithi and the entire gamut in between.
A lot has been written about the music itself for me torevisit it, but I’m fascinated by the relationship that made it possible. If you ask me, they completed each other. Terrible cliché asit is.
It’s a testament to Ilaiyaraaja’s genius that while he was making these urban anthems with Mani Ratnam, he was also creating an everlasting folk/semi-classicalbody of work with directors like Barathiraja, R Sundarrajan & GangaiAmaran. But the work with Mani Ratnam opened up Ilaiyaraaja as a composer. Mani Ratnam‘s world-vision and penchant for pushing-the-envelope gave Ilaiyaraaja’s music wings. Equallyimportantly the strong characters and the sheer flair of filmmaking in Mani Ratnam’swork would have been a great platform for Ilaiyaraaja who did not often get it.
For Mani Ratnam, Ilaiyaraaja was his Brahmaasthram. He could make any emotionbigger, more poignant, and more joyous. He could make a heroine sexier and ahero cooler. It was a great weapon to wield.
When we think about the Ilaiyaraaja - Mani Ratnam combo, the songs are the onesthat readily come to mind, but the true magic lay in the background scores ofthe movies. There is no way to quantify how much the BGM enhanced and empowereda Mounaragam, Nayagan or Thalapathi.
It’s an amazing coincidence that both these great men were born today, June 2nd. The beauty, power and magic of the Ilaiyaraaja - Mani Ratnamcollaboration was great while it lasted.
(CS Amudhan is a filmmaker, his first film Tamizh Padam, a spoof on Tamil cinema was a commercial and critical success. The story is from The Quint’s archives and is being reposted to mark Mani Ratnam’s birthday)
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