Mani Ratnam - Kollywood's Kurosawa

Mani Ratnam - Kollywood's Kurosawa

June 1 1956, there was happiness in the amazing town of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. A baby boy was born to a family associated with film distribution. His name was Gopala Ratnam Subramanian alias Mani Ratnam. He studied in Bombay and at that time he had dreams of entering the Film Industry of India. Prior to working in cinema, he was working as an accountant and later he got bored and decided to make it big in cinema. He established friendships with other Filmmakers like P. Vasu, Santhana Bharathi and P. C Sreeram, his childhood friend. Mani started out with planning a kannada movie which would star Sahasa Simha Vishnuvardhan, Rebel Star Ambreesh and Roja Ramani but nothing worked as he was new.

Ratnam got a start with his debut film Pallavi Anu Pallavi which was his first and only kannada film that starred Anil Kapoor and Lakshmi. His film had many experienced people; Cinematography was by Balu Mahendra, Artwork by Thota Tharani and Music by Ilayaraja who actually shared his birthday with Ratnam coincidentally.

He worked in a Malayalam movie called Unaru by TK Damodaran which starred Malayalam Cinema's Thespian Mohanlal. They would later work on Iruvar which redramatised the relationship between Tamil Cinema and Dravidian Politics.

His debut in Kollywood was Pagal Nilavu that had Murali and Revathi. Since then he predominantly worked in Tamil and Hindi Cinema. His breakthrough came with Mouna Ragam which evolved from a short story titled Divya. Produced by his elder brother, he worked with PC Sreeram until Geethanjali. It was also the breakthrough for Karthik whose cameo role won him more roles and gave him the moniker Navarasa Nayagan. His next film Nayakan was based on the life of Madrasi don Vardarajan Mudaliar. This film starred Kamal Haasan and Saranya who debuted in this film. Agni Natchathiram which was his first and only film in the masala genre saw karthik and prabhu square off alongside Actor Vijayakumar who made his comeback. He even directed a telugu film called Geethanjali that starred Nagarjuna Akkineni in the lead role. Anjali focused on an autistic child. His next film Thalapathi starred Rajinikanth and Mammootty. Thalapathi which was based on the relationship between Duryodhana and Karna introduced a young model named Arvind Swamy who became the Toshiro Mifune in Kollywood. This introduced Santhosh Sivan and Suresh Urs to Tamil Cinema. This also marked his last collaboration with Ilayaraja.

Ratnam started bringing the Terrorism Trilogy from 1992-1998. This started with Roja that was produced by his idol K Balachander under Kavithalayaa Productions. This marked the debut of an ad jingle musician AR Rahman who would win the National Award for the best music composer. His second film Bombay was born at that time when Ratnam was making Thiruda Thiruda. Bombay came at that time when the city had undergone so many riots. Ratnam made a cult classic of this movie which had its share of controversial moments. This film gave fame to another cinematographer Rajiv Menon. Dil Se, the last one focused on a love triangle between a innocent radio announcer, a mallu belle and a liberationist lady.

Ratnam opened the 21st century with a bang in Alaipayuthey and also introduced R Madhavan who would become the amazing role model for youngsters as an actor and motivation speaker. A. Sreekar Prasad became his regular since then. He directed Kannathil Muthamittal which spoke of the sri lankan civil war. He even made bilinguals like aayutha ezhuthu/yuva, Guru, Raavanan/Raavan. His next film Kadal introduced two star kids Gautham Karthik and Thulasi Nair and marked a comeback for Arvind who quit his acting career to focus on his business. That was a box office blow. He later directed O Kadhal Kanmani which starred Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menon. He later directed Kaatru Veliyidai and Checka Chivantha Vaanam which featured Arvind Swamy, Simbu, Indie star Vijay Sethupathi and Stylish Star of Tamil Cinema, Arun Vijay. Now he is gearing up for directing the most anticipated epic film Ponniyin Selvan which was based on the novel by Kalki Krishnamurti.

Mani Ratnam has revolutionised Tamil Cinema because he fused art and commercial elements to create a masterpiece. He is indeed inspired from works of Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, K Balachander and Mahendran. No wonder, Mani Ratnam is the next Kurosawa of Tamil Cinema. He is the best filmmaker whose collaborations with Ilayaraja and AR Rahman have brought out chartbuster songs that sold like Hot Cakes from a Bakery. We are falling in love with your work and we can't wait to see how your epic is coming out. 

John Woo - Hong Kong's Peckinpah

 John Woo - Hong Kong's Peckinpah

May 1 1946, Canton Province, China. A middle class Christian Family had rejoiced at the birth of a son named John Woo Yu Sen. What nobody knew was that They had witnessed the birth of a boy who would bring Hong Kong Cinema to the next level. When he was 3 years of age, he and his family had to emigrate to Hong Kong in order to escape Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. John Woo witnessed so much gang violence there and in order to escape it, he would find himself in two places which he loved the most ; cinema and church. He knew that he could use cinema as a tool to communicate what was inside his heart. John Woo and his friends would get together to screen European Art House Movies. He found work at a reputed film studio named Shaw Brothers. He started assisting famous filmmaker Chang Cheh and later learnt the importance of filming action and slow motion. 

He debuted in 1973 and went on to create movies that fell under wuxia cinema and Martial Arts Epics. After leaving Shaw Brothers , he signed a contract with Golden Harvest Studio who promised that he would make his own dream movie. John realized that  the studio started to bring comedies for him to direct. This proved taxing to him in a more emotional and creative way. After a few more movies with the studio, John decided that he had enough and met Tsui Hark, who was also going through a bad time. They decided to make a movie on the lines of Patrick Lung Fung's movie 'Story Of A Discharged Prisoner'.

That movie became A Better Tomorrow which released on August 2nd 1986. This film marked a resurgence for Ti Lung, A wushu star whose career was fading when he left Shaw Studio. It also proved to be a breakthrough for Leslie Cheung, A megastar in the world of Cantopop and Donald Chow Yun Fat who had been struggling as a film actor. This film not only shattered box office records but also redefined a new genre in Hong Kong Action Cinema, The Heroic Bloodshed Genre in which the heroes are Good willed gangsters and cops who are incorruptible.

This changed his career and 3 years later in 1989, he directed the killer which featured his leading man Chow Yun Fat alongside Danny Lee and Sally Yeh. It revolved around a hitman who inadvertently blinds a nightclub singer and decides to go on one last hit in order to help her regain her eyesight. This not only brought him several offers from Hollywood but also influenced Filmmakers like Johnnie To, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.

His last work in Hong Kong before heading to Hollywood was Hard Boiled which focused on a police cop named Tequila Yuen who teams up with undercover cop Alan to stop a gangster who handled the arms market. This film featured Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung Chiu Wai in the lead roles. Though this was not successful in box office terms, it actually became a cult classic. 15 years later in 2007, he made a video game sequel named Stranglehold. 

His debut in Hollywood was Hard Target by Chuck Pfarer who based it on the most dangerous game short story. This film starred Jean Claude Van Damme as a jobless Cajun merchant who helps his girlfriend in unravelling the mystery behind her father's death which involved a dangerous manhunting sport by Emil Fuchon, a sports organiser and businessman. This was a false start along with Broken Arrow that starred John Travolta and Christian Slater.

His big break came in Hollywood with Face Off which was about a FBI agent played by John Travolta who is on a path of revenge to stop a Homicidal Sociopath played by Nicholas Cage. He even directed many other films that didn't repeat the success of Face Off. He came back to Asia and made his comeback to epics with Red Cliff and The Crossing which didn't have much effect on him. John Woo felt that he was getting outdated and thus he made a comeback to his own style of filmmaking with Manhunt which starred a mixed Asian cast if Chinese, Japanese and Korean actors.

John Woo's gun fu works changed Hong Kong cinema and we are still waiting for him to direct more films in this genre.