Category Archives: Mani Ratnam

It’s end of April already!

Blame it on the lack of time or the fact that the ability to satisfactorily translate thoughts into words seems to be often eluding me nowadays or sheer laziness, I am now looking at the number of posts that I have written to celebrate 10 years of Alaipayuthey and cursing myself. I now feel like somebody who has a 3-hour exam to finish in just half an hour. 😉

Thinking about exams, I remember the first time I heard a group of people raving non-stop about Alaipayuthey. It was the day of my class 10 English board exam. Having completed the exam well ahead of time, all of us were happily standing outside the school and chatting. And that was when a group of my class mates started talking excitedly about the trailer of the next Mani Ratnam’s movie which was being telecast on the TV channels. They were talking about Madhavan, (at that time, who wouldn’t have done that? 😉 ) the music, etc. But I had not watched the trailer yet, since we still didn’t have cable connection at home! Being a mute participant to the conversation, little did I know back then that a couple of months down the line, I would become totally crazy about the movie and the craze would still be on an ever-increasing mode ten years down the line too! And that movie would be the one thing about which it’s difficult to get me to stop talking about. 🙂 I am in a nostalgic mood now!

Snehidhane Snehidhane

Sand, sea, sky in pink & orange hues, Ustad Sultan Khan’s vocals in the background, a lone boat, the couple – the girl clad in a salwar kameez and the guy in a blue t-shirt and jeans – and the wife’s name written on the sand by the husband. As the girl is about to bid adieu to her husband, the song begins. The location shifts from Bay of Bengal to the banks of Narmada River. Sand is replaced by a fort that is an architectural marvel. And yet the romantic atmosphere prevails.
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Enrenrum Punnagai!

Click here to watch the trailer of Alaipayuthey featuring this song! This was the last trailer which was released for Alaipayuthey. And it was also the only trailer which was telecast on TV for quite a long time after the movie got released. I still remember how it used to be telecast at a specific time everyday and I used to watch it too. Just look at how an entire bunch of happy & colourful scenes from the movie has been chosen for this song, matching the mood of the song having apt lines like ‘enRenRum punnagai, muDivillaa punnagai’! Brings a punnagai to your face too, doesn’t it? 🙂 Brick red, cement gray and the red and pink of Madhavan’s and Shalini’s costumes in the closing scene make such a beautiful colour combination on screen! I remember the trailer ending with Bru coffee being pouring into a green coffee mug with a voiceover in the background saying, ‘enRenRum punnagai. BruvuDan punnagai’.

P.S.: I could find only that low resolution video of this trailer.

Celebrating 10 years of Alaipayuthey!

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I can’t believe that it has been almost 10 years since the movie got released! The movie, as most of you might know, got released on April 14th, 2000. 10 long years and I still can’t have enough of it! 🙂 And I still can’t have enough of writing about it either. It would be highly unfair if I don’t celebrate my decade long passion for the movie that is so very special to me. Today, I leave you with one of my favourite stills from the movie. But, starting from tomorrow, more posts will follow. Dedicating the whole of April to Alaipayuthey! 🙂

Am super-excited!

It’s a Friday today and weekend is just a few hours away! 🙂
There is a T.M.Krishna’s concert today! 🙂
It is Sanjay’s first concert of the Season tomorrow! 🙂

Today morning, I had so many things to be happy about and I was, indeed, so very excited that I thought it wouldn’t be possible for me to be more excited than I already was, when I saw in ‘The Hindu”s ‘Friday Review’ that Mani Ratnam is going to be one of the guests of honour at the release of the DVD of T.M.Krishna and Bombay Jayashri’s ‘Margazhi Raagam’!!!

The day in 2005 when I saw in ‘Metro Plus’ that DVDs of Mani Ratnam’s movies are going to be launched by Mani Ratnam himself still remains evergreen in my memory, while seeing Mani Ratnam and even getting his autograph still seems like an unbelievable dream!! Despite all the excitement, there is this big disappointment that my sister is not there in India now. 🙁 She wasn’t able to come for the DVD launch of Mani Ratnam’s movies itself! 🙁 Anyway, irrespective of whether I see Mani Ratnam this Sunday or not, I am super-excited!!! 🙂

The ‘Margazhi Raagam’ DVD launch is going to happen at Cafe Ashvita in Radhakrishnan Salai on December 6th (4 pm – 5 pm). I don’t think any invite is needed for this. So, all you Mani Ratnam fans out there, mark your calendar! 🙂

Kannathil Muthamittal Revisited

Watching the last half an hour or so of Kannathil Muthamittal on K TV today morning, I remembered the post of mine that has been lying unfinished in the drafts for a long time now.

Sometime in June last year (this post has been in draft from that time!!), there was this thematic concert of T.M.Krishna that I went to. The theme of the concert was ‘Relationships’. As I heard a moving rendition of Mahakvi Bharatiyar’s ‘chinnanchiru kiLiye’(which he had chosen for the relationship between a father and his daughter) by TMK – how does he manage to bring so much bhava in everything that he sings! TMK rocks! 🙂 –, I couldn’t help remembering the movie ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’ the moment he sang those lines in the song. 🙂 As my thoughts drifted towards the movie, the first thing that came to my mind was what an apt title Mani Ratnam had chosen for the movie!
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Women in Mani Ratnam’s movies

Sangs’ post was what made me write this post. She has written that most of Mani Ratnam’s heroines are epitomes of innocence. But, I don’t think so.

Taking their own decisions, choosing how their life has to be, speaking their mind out and at times, being real stubborn – to me, these are what characterize the women in Mani Ratnam’s movies. Of course, some of their decisions do get influenced by their parents or others around them. But that, definitely, doesn’t make them innocent.
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The Wedding Song!

The first time I watched the trailer of this song, the colourful and joyous atmosphere, the foot-tapping beats, girls singing and dancing happily in a teasing tone and the eyes of the handsome hero and the heroine meeting each other were enough for me to like it instantly. I remember listening to the full song only after watching the trailer.
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