IFFI 2024: Mani Ratnam talks to Gautham Menon on ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ and transforming literary masterpieces into engaging films

After more than four decades in the business of making films and after countless milestones that changed the course of Tamil cinema, ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam continues to wield his enchanting wand – his wit and magnetic way with words – as he addressed a hall full of fans eager to know all things Mani Ratnam. On Friday evening, the Kala Academy in Goa turned into an evening of celebrating the Iruvar-maker, as he answered candidly to questions from filmmaker and a Mani Ratnam aficionado, Gautham Vasudev Menon, on the art of transforming literary masterpieces into engaging films, at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The evening began with Gautham wringing his own version of a quote from ‘Dead Poet’s Society‘ by Peter Weir’s : “We make films because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life. But films, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.“ When asked if he feels this way, more than 40 years since he started making films, the Nayagan maker said he still feels like a beginner.

Filmmaker Mani Ratnam spoke about transforming literary masterpieces into engaging films.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“When I did my first film, I thought I would learn everything and be a master. That’s never there at all. It’s still the first film every time, and you go into a shoot not knowing how to shoot but wanting to do something and searching for it,” he said, adding that filmmaking, according to him, means sharing something from within. “It can be something that bothers you; something that brings joy to you; something you think is the truth in everybody.”

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The conversation then moved on to what went behind making the blockbuster Ponniyin Selvan films, based on the eponymous novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy. When asked if he ever felt any fear or apprehensions in translating to screen one of Tamil literature’s most popular offerings, a book series read by millions, the filmmaker said that he just trusted Kalki. “This is a classic everything calling to be made into a film, be it the characters, scale, intrigue, period, horses, adventure, and so on. I was not afraid. I was afraid of how I could do it. But, this is a story read by millions of people who each have their vision of how each character should be. So, I was batting not just with the books but also with readers’ perceptions. But the only guiding factor was that I was also one of the passionate readers, and I will go with what I felt can be put on the screen,” he said, praising Kalki’s visual writing style, something he feels could be made into a long-format series.

Gautham Menon and Mani Ratnam at the event.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

As the conversation pivoted towards the filmmaker’s literary interests, he observed how ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ improved from novel to stage and then to the screen. “The brilliance of adaptation is finding a completely different language for it. If the movie had stuck to the first-person narration, it wouldn’t have been the same. They completely reinvented it. It’s fascinating to see how the rest of them are doing it. I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to convert one big piece into a film, so it’s an art that we have to learn a lot more.”

Answering Gautham’s question on how he decides which literary work could become a potentially engaging film, the Thalapathi-maker advised filmmakers to follow their instincts. “The moment you choose something, it is only after you know it is engaging for you. You are the best judge of what works for you.

In the Ponniyin Selvan films, Mani Ratnam famously retained the cliffhanger that Kalki had left the audiences with while addressing the mystery behind Adithya Karikalan’s death. The filmmaker said he found no point in reinventing history since the mystery behind the Chola king’s death remains unsolved. “Kalki covered it up completely and let the readers imagine. In films, you need to show something; there’s a two-dimensional image pretending to be three-dimensional,” he said, adding that conclusively stating one character, say, Nandini, as the killer, would demand a lot of drama to be played out to answer the unanswered questions.

The discussion moved to the decision behind shooting in real locations and how the filmmaker gets his tunes from his composers. Still, the topic that truly captivated the audiences was Mani Ratnam’s fascination with Indian mythology, which he popularly touched upon in Thalapathi and Raavanan.

ALSO READ: Gautham Menon interview: How ‘Dhruva Natchathiram’ pushed him to the very edge, and why he’s stronger for it

“What’s great about our epics is that they throw so many fascinating characters like Karnan, and so much can be made out of them.” Reminiscing the time he spent at Kalakshetra, where he was exposed to theatre, art, dance, and music, Mani Ratnam said how the aspect that intrigued him about them all was how they all spoke of fascinating interpretations of the mythology, “in which they dealt with characters that were portrayed as villains, and look at it from their point of view.”

The session ended with a rather interesting QnA session with the audience, in which topics ranged from how he deals with last-minute issues that prop up on a film set to how he works with his cinematographers, like the celebrated Ravi Varman, who was observing the discussion from the sidelines.