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Posted on August 15, 2020
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rsylviana
August 16, 2020
An interesting article about ManiRatnam and his politics that analyses the man majorly by his movies ,interviews and his responses in BR’s book. Wasn’t sure in which thread to leave this comment but didn’t want to raid a Reader’s Write In post so here goes…
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-right-wing-hindu-hypernationalist-politics-of-mani-ratnam-s-films_in_5f382534c5b69fa9e2fc3eef
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Madan
August 16, 2020
Oh wow, the point where I started to skip-read through the article arrived very quickly.
I quote: “The film staged several moments that deliberately aroused jingoistic feelings among viewers who otherwise had no strong opinion on Kashmir or its conflicts. ”
Well, maybe they should and would have been had the govt, feeling guilty about its incompetence in stopping the exodus, not chosen to keep it a hush-hush matter. Newstrack boldly covered the events of the day and unfortunately, the chilling warning of the reporter in the end came true:
“. Here too, the position taken by the filmmaker is very similar to that of the RSS and BJP where he speaks through the victimhood of Kashmiri Pandits.”
Hoo boy, maybe people like Rajesh Rajamani are only capable of breaking out of their ideological stupor and appreciating the plight of those KPs who lost everything in the exodus if they too would one day find their house torched, their near and dear dead and their neighbours turn into menacing extremists driving them out of what was once their home and community.
It is NOT a right wing stance to speak about Kashmiri Pandits. It was the job of a self proclaimed secular state and the govt of India, both during Rajiv’s tenure and later during VP-BJP govt in 1989-90, abdicated this responsibility shamelessly. People need to stop whitewashing what happened in 1990.
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Isai
August 16, 2020
Rsylviana:
Thanks for sharing that article.
Hmm.. As usual I have a batshit crazy theory: I guess Mani Ratnam was once in love with a Muslim woman. That’s what drove him to make Bombay and Dil Se and perhaps that’s why he is an atheist. The pattern is: I found Gautham Menon’s Minnale and VTV to be highly personal. In these movies, the hero is a Hindu and the heroine is a Christian but never say a Muslim. Why? Because, I believe that’s what happened in his life. Also, he started killing the heroine, the first love, in Kaakha Kaakha, VV, VA, YA etc. In 4 movies, he ALWAYS killed that heroine. They are never separated. Why? I think he wants closure in real life and that’s why he prefers to give a ‘clean breakup’ to his protagonists. In contrast, the 2nd heroine ALWAYS settles down with the hero and we NEVER get something like the movie Autograph. Which makes me believe he had only 1 failed relationship.
I also think that’s why Bala killed the brahmin heroine in Sethu, Selva killed the Marwari heroine in 7/G Rainbow Colony and Mani Ratnam killed the Muslim heroine in Dil Se/Uyire. Interestingly, they have stopped having a brahmin/marwari/muslim heroine in their later movies. Ironically, Bala gets accused of being against brahmins and Mani Ratnam gets accused of supporting hindu hyper nationalism. Even up north, I think Yash/Aditya Chopra were once in love with a Muslim woman and that’s why they keep making movies about Hindu-Muslim unity more often than others.
One of my friends, a Hindu was once in love with a Muslim woman but I guess the parents didn’t agree. So, whenever he sees a movie about Hindu-Muslim unity/romance, he gets all choked up, for even bad movies like War, Viswaroopam 2 etc. and says this is a great movie man…my life would have been perfect. I often tell him, see Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan made TWO movies each about Hindu-Muslim unity/romance. The first movies became big hits whereas the second movies flopped. Similarly, your life could have gone either way. You are idealising it since you have not lived that life. Now, you have had enough time for your wounds to heal. It is time for you to move on.
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Honest Raj
August 16, 2020
@Madan: About the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, I cannot speak for other South Indian states but it wouldn’t have mattered in a state like TN (think of the genocide of Tamils in Eelam being a non-issue among rest of the states) even otherwise. As a matter of fact, even Emergency and Babri Masjid demolition hardly had an effect on TN (except a few places, maybe). The only ‘North-centric’ event which garnered a huge attention in TN was Rajiv’s assassination (for obvious reasons). Now coming to Roja, Mani Ratnam was making a pan-Indian film in Tamil. I remember once BR, in a comments-section, ruled out the possibility of finding a Tamilian (the Janakaraj character) in Kashmir. 🙂
On a side note, this might interest some of you. 😀
https://www.popmatters.com/mouna-raagam-indian-cinemas-first-chick-flick-a-hindu-nationalist-fantasy-2495413169.html
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Madan
August 17, 2020
“I cannot speak for other South Indian states but it wouldn’t have mattered in a state like TN (think of the genocide of Tamils in Eelam being a non-issue among rest of the states) even otherwise.” – This I can agree with but the article insinuates that it was wrong/right wing for Mani to make people care about what was happening in Kashmir and that’s a ridiculous proposition in and of itself. The article also ignores that both Roja and Bombay, being bilinguals with an eye on the large Hindi market, were playing to a different audience altogether from his 80s ventures.
About the other article:
“No other film in Indian cinema, at that point, has unabashedly revolved around a heroine who would rather be with the bad boy than the nice guy. ”
This is an incorrect proposition again as Nenjathai Killathe had the same set up and made so bold as to have the heroine work through her conflict in choosing between them rather than Mani’s flashback device. Suhasini in fact only finally and unequivocally chooses Pratap when Mohan tells her he’s already taken. What a comedown that was for En Iniya Pon Nilave, on another note!
Of course, that is nothing compared to the article’s abject failure to cogently explain its central proposition. It is just a lazy guilt-by-association kind of blame; that because Mouna Ragam happened to be made during the rise of Hindu nationalism, it must be Hindu nationalist by definition.
Popmatters was bad enough before they descended into cultural marxism; read their rather pretentious review of Fiona Apple’s Idler Wheel album for an example. And now this. So much eloquence that amounts to…nothing? 😀
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Madan
August 17, 2020
Reflecting on the two articles, I wonder about the facile assumption both authors seem to make that anybody who doesn’t take a completely internationalist position is necessarily right wing. In their formulation, then, Michael J Foot or George Galloway would be righties while David Cameron or Dick Heath would be lefties. Have they seriously never heard of leftist nationalism at all? I don’t know by the way what ideology Mani ‘s views subscribe to, just commenting on the manner in which the article takes a few discrete ‘stands’ to paint him as nationalist.
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Honest Raj
August 18, 2020
This I can agree with but the article insinuates that it was wrong/right wing for Mani to make people care about what was happening in Kashmir and that’s a ridiculous proposition in and of itself.
I don’t think MR wanted to tell people what exactly was happening in Kashmir/Bombay/Sri Lanka. It seems the author is complaining about the films (by means of the backdrop against which the stories are set) pandering to the majoritarian sentiments which prevailed at the time. Sure, there are elements with hyper-nationalist undertones (like the flag-burning scene), but to dismiss the whole film as peddling ‘soft Hindutva’ seems a bit of stretch.
Have they seriously never heard of leftist nationalism at all? I don’t know by the way what ideology Mani ‘s views subscribe to, just commenting on the manner in which the article takes a few discrete ‘stands’ to paint him as nationalist.
This is from the article:
The character played by Kamal in AR is a communist. So that should make him a left-nationalist. 🙂
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