Express at IFFI | Mani Ratnam discusses his journey in cinema: ‘In many ways, I still feel like a beginner’

Ratnam emphasised the profound transportation betwixt cinema and literature, asserting that “the person the graph betwixt cinema and literature, the amended Indian cinema volition be.” He stressed that filmmakers indispensable refine the delicate creation of transforming written words into captivating ocular narratives. This synergy, helium believed, would elevate the prime of Indian cinema.

The speech subsequently shifted to Ratnam’s caller blockbuster, Ponniyin Selvan 1 and 2, based connected the eponymous caller by Kalki Krishnamurthy. When asked astir imaginable apprehensions successful adapting 1 of Tamil literature’s astir beloved offerings for the screen, Ratnam confessed that helium trusted Kalki’s imaginativeness implicitly. “This is simply a classic, everything calling to beryllium made into a movie – the characters, scale, intrigue, period, horses, adventure, and truthful on. I was not afraid. I was acrophobic of however I could bash it,” helium explained.

Ratnam acknowledged the immense unit of adapting a caller that has been work by millions, each with their ain unsocial imaginativeness of the characters and story. However, helium drew inspiration from his ain experiences arsenic a passionate scholar of the novel. “The lone guiding origin was that I was besides 1 of the passionate readers, and I volition spell with what I felt tin beryllium enactment connected the screen,” helium remarked.

Ratnam besides praised Kalki’s penning style, which helium believed lent itself perfectly to a long-format series. He noted that the author’s ocular storytelling quality made the adaptation process smoother.

The speech past veered towards Ratnam’s literate influences, and helium cited the illustration of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He observed however the caller improved with each adaptation, from signifier to screen. “The brilliance of adaptation is uncovering a wholly antithetic connection for it. If the movie had stuck to the first-person narration, it wouldn’t person been the same. They wholly reinvented it,” helium said.

Ratnam expressed his admiration for the creation of adaptation, acknowledging the challenges of converting a sprawling caller into a cohesive film. He confessed that helium had struggled with this process himself, emphasising the request for filmmakers to hone this skill.

In the Ponniyin Selvan films, Ratnam retained the cliffhanger that Kalki had near audiences with, addressing the enigma down Adithya Karikalan’s death. When Menon asked him arsenic to wherefore helium didn’t conscionable amusement that Nandini, played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, arsenic his killer, the filmmaker explained that helium saw nary constituent successful reinventing history, arsenic the enigma surrounding the Chola king’s demise remains unsolved to this day. “Kalki covered it up wholly and fto the readers imagine. In films, you request to amusement something; there’s a two-dimensional representation pretending to beryllium three-dimensional,” helium said.