On Mani Ratnam’s birthday, watch these five brilliant film

Today, June 2, is the birthday of filmmaker Mani Ratnam. Ratnam is a name much revered in the industry and his films have an aspirational value for actors. His real name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam, and besides his adept directorial skills, he’s known for his screenwriting, and production abilities, too. He predominantly worked in Tamil cinema yet some of his works (in both regional and Hindi cinema) have left an indelible mark on the way we visualise narratives and storytelling, today.

The film industry has been wishing him a very happy birthday on social media, too.

Meanwhile, we bring you a list of five of his films that every movie lover ought to watch/ re-watch:

1. Roja (1992)

The film is romantic thriller about Rishi (actor Arvind Swamy), who works with RAW, gets kidnapped and his wife Roja (actor Madhoo) tries to rescue her husband. The film won three National Awards, including for Best Film on National Integration, has been written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It was released in Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam and Telugu languages.

Not many know that actor Karisma Kapoor was offered the role of a Kashmiri girl in this iconic film, which she supposedly turned down because she didn’t want to do a supporting role.

2. Bombay (1995)

A Hindu boy (Arvind Swamy) and a Muslim girl (Manisha Koirala) fall in love in a small village of India and move to Mumbai, to live happily ever after. But do they live happily? The growing religious tension in their contemporary society and consequent riots and bomb blasts lend a realistic angle to the rosy picture that Ratnam paints and erases himself.
For this one, Ratnam reportedly based the script on true events that occurred between December 1992 to January 1993.

3. Dil Se... (1998)

That climax scene where the boy (Shah Rukh Khan) hugs his love interest (Manisha Koirala) and the two explode with bomb, is one of the most powerful scenes of the film. Not to forget that Dil Se’s songs are a still a hit. Anyone in mood for Chal Chaiyya Chaiyya?

4. Yuva (2004)

Ratnam gave love-stories a realistic backdrop of the political tension and ideologies that youngsters often find themselves involved in. The film boasts a multi-starrer cast (actors Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgn and Vivek Oberoi). The three leading men, from different strata of society, meet and change each other’s lives.
It’s said that actor Shah Rukh Khan was offered Ajay Devgn’s role, initially.

5. Guru (2007)

The recent news that Mani Ratnam has signed actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for his next has been doing rounds. But remember the film where he cast the actor before she added Bachchan to her name? This film was loosely based on the life of industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani (founder of Reliance Industries).
It’s a known fact that on 14 January 2007, two days after the film was released, the engagement of its lead actors, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, was announced. They were married on 20 April 2007.

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