Mani's Cinematographer - Rajiv Menon

Rajiv Menon

Rajiv Menon a multi-faceted personality, a director as well as a cinematographer by profession. They both joined together for the movie Bombay and the latest hits GURU.

Frames in movie Bombay were perfectly composed and beautifully backlit even if this style involves total violation of tonal, focal and color continuity. The usual darkness that permeates the Mani screen is mostly not evidenced in this movie, partly because of the need for realism in much of the film.

Rajiv’s feeling about Mani Ratnam is “I enjoyed working with him in Bombay. Mani Ratnam is a perfectionist. He will not stop until he is satisfied with his work. He is one of the very few directors in India who never compromises on details".

"Mani, unlike what people think, never interferes with other people's work, he never asks you to shift things or gives suggestions. But he demands perfection and excellence. You have to give to him the best and he keeps pushing you to give the best. And I was pushed very, very hard to deliver the best, which I think was appreciated by everyone in the end. "

Rajiv have directed two movies, Minsara Kanavu (Sapnay - in hindi) & Kandukondain - kandukondain

Source: BehindWoods & Agencyfags

Mani's Cinematographer - Santhosh Sivan

Santhosh Sivan

Santhosh Sivan, one of the renowned cinematographers in India, has 9 national awards under his name. He has joined hands with Mani Ratnam in movie like Dalapathi, Roja, Iruvar and Dil Se (Uyire in Tamil) also Indira for Mani's wife Suhasini.

The movie Dil Se was a great example for wonderful work of camera. Especially, in Dil Se Re song the camera work was extremely superb. Also, in movie Roja the terror in Jammu & Kashmir was picturised fantastically. The real situation prevailing there was brought before your eyes. No one could forget those wonderful

Santhosh is the one who intorduce Madhavan to Mani Ratnam when Mani looking for actor for his Iruvar but it doesn't works because he is too young and later went to our Prakash Raj. Mani keeps his promise to Maddy where later he introduce him as a hero in Alaipayuteh.

Mani's Cinematographer - P.C. Sreeram

P.C.Sreeram

P.C.Sreeram is a long time friend of Mani Ratnam. The movies for this flourishing duo include Mouna Ragam, Nayagan, Agni Nakshatiram, Geetanjali (Telugu), Thiruda Thiruda and Alai payudhey.

Madhavan after receiving the filmfare award for debut actor thanked Mani as wel
as Sreeram, for showing him beautifully in the screen. So, whatever may be the situation P.C.Sreeram comes up in his own style and endorses the beauty to the film. Both of them have a great mutual understanding. P C Sreeram's work was much-admired in Mani Ratnam's films, as he always had the freedom to experiment

In fact, PC was supposed to do Guru too, but his dates had been blocked for Cheeni Kum.

"It is always a pleasure to work with Mani Ratnam even though we had lots of arguments. All those arguments are, eventually, for the good of the film."

"The vibes between us are good and a kind of electricity happens when we work together.

But I can tell you one thing about his next Hindi film - its script is terrific."

Mani's Cinematographer - Balu Mahendra

Balu Mahendra

Mani Ratnam's first movie was Pallavi Anu Pallavi in

Kannada. The movie had Anil Kapoor in the peak role.

The camera was handled by the veteran camera man cum director Balu Mahendra .

Initially, Balu had his own doubts about Mani because he has neither worked as an assistant director nor trained from any film institute. After, completing the movie Balu made a remarkable statement.

The statement was “His enthusiasm is infectious.” That is Mani Ratnam!

Speciality of Camera in Mani's movies

Mani Ratnam the versatile film director is known for his unique way of narrating the story. Not only, he ponders on the script, he also gives equal importance to technical aspects of the movie.

Especially, when it comes to camera he is one of the best directors to get the maximum out of the cinematographers. His cinematographers are in the top position all over India. In his movie the camera speaks louder than dialogues. Now, in this few weeks let us see the details of his cameraman in his movies.

Source: BehindWoods

GURU - A MANI RATNAM FILM

Maniratnam-Abhishek-ARR-SreekarPrasad-RajivMenon-Samir Chanda are set to rock you with their WORLD CLASS performance !

‘There is saying in our village if people say bad things about you, You must do something good.’ Thatz not only Guru’s talk but its proven through our great Director Mani Ratnam. Even thoughpeople complaining bout his ‘Iruvar’, ‘Dil Se’, Yuva/Aaitha Ezhuttu, Kannathil Muthamittal….He still on his stand to make good cinema without thinking on making profit alone.

Now letz go to the story a bit….we can divide this great epic of Gurukanth Desai into three phases as VILLAGER-VISIONARY-WINNER. VILLAGER-The movie is about life of Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan), a dreamer, who lives in a small village and believes in dreaming high. Then he went to Turkey to earn money and gain experiences. After became matured he decided to leave his job and return to India even though he got promoted asSales Supervisor.

VISIONARY- He is married to Sujata (Aishwarya Rai). He also has something else; two shirts and Rs.15,000 to start his business, along with the Rs 25,000 he got as dowry! But soon he realizes that the business world is ruled by a handful of rich and influential people and for him to make his foray here, he has to “force” his way. With some help and advice from Nandikthaas Gupta@Nanaji (Mithun Chakrabothy) he started his business by selling polyester.

WINNER - So it’s both black and white sides to him now. His fair side wins him admirers, at the same time as his grey side earns him a few detractors. Nanaji who was like a mentor to Guru started to opposed Guru after his newspaper misused by Guru for the sake destroying The Contractors and gaining popularity. Nanaji and Shyam Saxena (Madhavan, the honest reporter) are two of them who stand up to fight Guru’s unjust ways. How Guru will fight the strength of ‘SWATANTRA’ (the battalion of Nanaji and Shyam Saxena? Thatz the rest of the story…..go n watch it yourself in theaters. The way the story unravels keeps the audience to their seat. Guru simply refuses to hear a “no’ and supposedly has an answer to every problem which sees his meteoric rise.

This great epic served with fantasticteam of actors and technicians. This definitely will Abhishek Bachans life time character. He will always remembered as Gurukanth Desai. He deserved an award for his excellent acting. Remember , before this Manirathnam gave him a major break with Lallan’s role in Yuva. Aiswarya Rai suits the Sujatha’s role . Their love chemistry is simply superb if we compare to their previous films together like Umrao Jaan and Kuch Na Kahoo. Their acting was just too natural as a husband and wife.

It was good to see Mithun Chakraborty in a decent role after a long time. R Madhavan looked a lot slimmer than his earlier avatar ‘Rang De Basanthi’ ane ‘Rendu’. He excels with the role of Shyam Saxena along with Vidya Balan in the role Meenu. Mallika Sherawat lives up to the expectations and sizzles the screen in a dance number picturised in Istanbul.

When it is A R Rahman, it has to be top class and he proved again in this movie. Juz listen to ‘Tera Bina’, u will agree with me that he is fantastic singer. Background score was too excellent. He is definetly the ‘MOZART OF INDIA’. Thanks to the superb camerawork by Rajiv Menon (the director of MinsaraKanavu & Kandukondain Kandukondain) who had earlier worked with Manirathnam In Bombay. He had captured three phases in Guru’s life differently.

SamirChandha excels his part as an art director with his superb settings especially for ‘tera bina & mayya-mayya song’. SreekarPrasad’s first class editing will make you stucked in your seat.As a die hard fan of Maniratnam, I can truly say that this man’s body is getting old but not his brain. He still giving us a great treat to watch and never cares about the controversy and criticism on him. For me, I think he is the ‘GURU’ for the next generation of Directors…..

REVIEW BY MANI RATNAM'S DIE HARD FAN : JayG

MANI - Man Of Very Few Words

He is a man of very few words. Mani Sir doesn't gossip. That's the best thing about him. There is no frivolous talk. There is always work. He is always the first one to reach the office. The man wakes up at 5 am, reads the paper, and goes for a one-hour walk and still has that passion for cinema after so many films. He lives and breathes films.