Anil Kapoor, R Madhavan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – 7 discoveries of Mani Ratnam that Indian cinema continues to cherish even now

If there are any directors in India who we can claim to make us proud more on a global scale, not through big budget stuff but through intrinsic human dramas, Mani Ratnam belongs to that elite category. He is, without any doubt, one of the finest film-makers India has ever seen, who lets his work speak for his quality as a film-maker than his PR and fan clubs. When you see Mani Ratnam, you see him as a quiet, unassuming man with a sage twinkle in his eyes. But just go through his filmography and you will see some original stuff that is just high-quality work, be it in terms of story-telling or technical finesse. That’s the specialty of Mani Ratnam movies – they may talk of human dramas that happen around us, but they are also beautiful. Mani Ratnam does not just have a keen sense of observing human nuances, but also a keen eye for technical detail. He is like the Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola roles into one man.

He has also the immaculate knack of extracting fine performances from his actors, even when some of them were labelled as wooden before. Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Prakash Raj, Revathi, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Dulquer Salmaan, Simran, Nithya Menen have gives their best performances in his movies. Mani Ratnam has also introduced some really good actors and technicians to the industry through his movies, some of them still ruling the industry. As Mani Ratnam is ready to unveil his next, Kaatru Veliyidai starring Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari, we look at 7  talents that Mani Ratnam introduced through his movies.

AR Rahman

One of the best contributions of Mani Ratnam to Indian cinema, perhaps even the best, is none other than the Academy Award winning musical wizard, AR Rahman. AR Rahman was Ilayaraja’s assistant and was composing jingles for ads, before Mani Ratnam saw the immense talent in the lad and gave him his first gig as a composer in Roja, that came out in 1992. The rest, as they say, is glorious history. The score for Roja is deemed as the best score composed by a debutant, and it still ranks as the favourite of many music lovers. From thereon, Mani Ratnam has stuck with Rahman as his composer, and Rahman has made sure he reserves his best to the man who laid the stepping stone for his success, spinning magic with scores for Bombay, Dil Se, Kannathil Muthamittal, Thiruda Thiruda, OK Kanmani and so on. And now, they have completed 25 wonderful years of collaboration with  Kaatru Veliyidai.

Anil Kapoor

It is a much lesser known fact that Anil Kapoor had made his debut as a leading man in Kannada, and that Mani Ratnam had offered him an opportunity to do so. Though Anil Kapoor has made his acting debut in another Kannada movie called Vamsa Vruksha, this was his first romantic lead role. The movie narrates an unconventional plot of a committed young man (Anil Kapoor) falling in love with an older woman who is married as well (Lakshmi). It may be quite a humble beginning for Anil Kapoor, but it was the start of a glorious journey of four decades that transcended geographical boundaries.

Preity Zinta

Before she made a scintillating debut with the underrated Dil Se…, she was well known to telly audiences as the bubbly Liril girl. So it was shocking to the viewers when one of her first dialogues to Shah Rukh Khan was ‘Are you a virgin?’. If you hadn’t fallen hook, line and sinker for this girl by then, then there is the sensuous Jiya Jale song, where she has presented in the sexiest manner acceptable to a family viewing audience. Preity Zinta made a mark right there and then, and it was a beginning of an illustrious career.

R Madhavan

It is not technically right to call Alaipayuthey Madhavan’s debut, since he had been seen in bit roles in movies like Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi, a Kannada movie called Shaanti Shaanti Shaanti and Inferno (no..not the Irrfan Khan one). He was also a known face on television. But it was Alaipayuthey that catapulted R Madhavan into stardom, and also straight to the girls’ hearts. It made him a saleable actor, and Mani Ratnam was so impressed with his dedication that he repeated the actor in his subsequent movies like Kannathil Muthamithal, Azhutha Ezhuthu and Guru.

Arvind Swamy

Though he started off in a supporting role in Mani Ratnam’s gangster drama Thalapathi, Arvind Swamy held his own against stalwarts like Mammootty and Rajinikanth. Seeing his confidence, Mani Ratnam made him the lead hero in two of his major and most memorable movies, Roja and Bombay. The pan-India appeal of both the movies made Arvind Swamy a heartthrob across the country. However he couldn’t find much success outside his work with Mani Ratnam. He had a cameo to play in Alaipayuthey (the role which Shah Rukh Khan played in the remake). After a short hiatus from acting, he made his comeback again through a Mani Ratnam movie, Kadal. Though his role was well appreciated, the movie flopped. However his negative portrayal in Thani Oruvan won a lot of accolades for Swamy, and he is now one of the most in-demand actors in South.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai’s beauty was already popular among the industry circles thanks to her stint in Miss India contest. It was a cinch that she would get into acting soon, especially after she won Miss World title. Though I have quite a mixed opinion about her later choice of roles, at least she made the right kind of choice with her debut movie when she was a part of Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar. She had dual roles in the movie, one of which was modelled after the late Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa. Though her performance had some rough edges, she still didn’t waver performing in front of legends like Mohanlal and Prakash Raj. When Aishwarya Rai and Mani Ratnam collaborated once again a few years later, she gave one of her finest performances in Guru.

Gautham Kartik

Let’s look at one of the recent additions to the movie industry that Mani Ratnam had given. When Mani Ratnam announced that he is going to make a passionate love story with the son on actor Karthik and daughter of actress Radha in the lead, many of his fans were quite excited. However, Kadal turned out to be that rare disappointment that doesn’t have any chances of getting love later, like Dil Se and Thiruda Thiruda. But the lead actor, Gautam Karthik, was not much in the receiving end of the brickbats. The reviews had singled him out for praises, and he is making a decent movie career after that.