Precious Jewel. Review on Five Best Films of Mani Ratnam

Mani and Rathnam both the words mean precious stones. And guess Mani Rathnam is an indispensible strength of Indian cinema. Among makers like Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and others ... Mani Rathnam is one name that will be remembered forever.

To begin with his films have stories that have an emotional inkling. His films are about people. He is one of the few excellent directors who does not cast stars and then look for a story. He casts actors who suit the part best in his story. His song picturisation is next to perfection. In fact Ramgopal Varma said in an interview that he started picturising songs because he was greatly influenced by the way Mani shot songs.

Although I haven't seen any of his regional films - except for Nayagan which was later made into Dayavan by Feroz Khan. And Vinod Khanna did a brilliant job of portraying a gangster alongwith a husband and a father. Most of you must've seen the Hindi version. Imagine if Vinod Khanna was so good how brilliant would Kamal Haasan have been in the original. Once again proving the point that the script is the main star of the film.

Nayagan was in Tamil and was released in the year 1987.

In 1990 there was Anjali. Story of a little disabled child that touched the hearts of many. The film wasn't trying to make any statements or give psychological analysis of things - it like all his films dealt with human sentiments. The trauma and pain that parents of a disabled child go through.

1991 saw the release of Dalpathi - of which we probably only saw Rajnikant's song. The dubbed version wasn't too popular on the charts to be watched. None of the dubbed versions really are!!

And then released Roja in 1992. That gave Indian cinema two stars apart from other things. There was Madhoo and Arvind Swamy both of whom made an instant impact with their credible performances. Roja was the story of a woman who first hates the idea of marrying a guy who had come to see his sister and then falls in love with him. She goes through hell when he is kidnapped by terrorists. Roja's music helped its popularity to a great extent. And the master of song picturisation was born.

His next big film was Bombay which saw the light of the day in 1995. This film starred Arvind SWamy in the key role again and made a star out of Manisha Koirala who after her debut in Saudagar had lost her charm. Bombay took a real look at the riots in the city enveloped around a love story. Bombay too had some amazingly memorable tracks.

Roja and Bombay had music by the maestro A R Rahman and also got people to wake up and take notice of singer Hariharan.

Iruvar marked the regional debut of Aishwarya Rai. And got her the very many hindi film offers that paved her way to stardom.

1998 was the year of DIl Se. A much-hyped film this one starred Shah Rukh alongwith Manisha Koirala and saw Preity Zinta make her debut in films. The songs are still played frequently on fm channels and were visually exotic as well. But something went wrong with the story of the film. Probably people couldn't accept Manisha playing a terrorist or a sane guy like Shah Rukh falling for a criminal-by-choice girl while he had the option of a beautiful girl like Preity.

Saathiya was another film ... which has story by Mani Rathnam and the original version was directed by him. Although I have just about seen Shaad Ali's version which is supposed to be a carbon copy of the same. Saathiya has been one of the few sensible and mature scripts in recent times. Again with great music by A R Rahman.

Mani Rathnam's next is a bilingual film. And the hindi version stars the likes of Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi. Quite a treat to watch out for!!!