Et Tu Mani?: The Anguish of an ardent Fan

While I am happy, that Chekka Chivantha vanam(CCV) is doing well at the Box Office, I have been quite depressed since yesterday, after watching CCV.

In Nov 1987, After watching 'Vertigo' at Chanakya in Shanthi path, my friend Shankar Sundaram and me, found our way through the cold November, through the dark Buddha jayanthi Park to watch Nayagan with our friends at Karol Bagh, a roomful of them(may be 20) on a video cassette. It was well beyond midnight that 'Nayagan' started playing. In the ensuing two and half hours, there was pin drop silence in the room. 

The bar had been raised irreversibly.

Mani had the courage and conviction to make 'Iruvar'. A movie of extraordinary artistic merit. I do not know the risks that Mani had taken to make the film. But I believe he must have balls of steel to push 'Iruvar' through. I can challenge that probably nobody can make 'Iruvar' again. On a personal front, my regret remains, that since it was released in 1997, I could not show 'Iruvar' to my bed ridden father, who passed away in Jan 2002. He would have loved it. 

I can melt over 'Kannathil Muthamittal' and have goosebumps over the innumerable 'pearl and diamond'(mani ratnam)moments that I have savored over the years.

The premise of CCV is fantastic, my daughter as soon as she stepped out of the hall, averred that this could have been made in two parts. May be justice might have been done.

When an accomplished director, who is completely knowledgeable, who redefines the rule of Indian Cinema cuts corners, with an ensemble cast, all of them reduced to almost 'quarter baked' characters (not sure if they are baked at all), gnawing gaps in story telling, and highly illogical and laughable sequences, to deliver a hit based on the charisma of a few stars, it is indeed a sad day for Indian Cinema.

May be this is all the audience wants, But it has to be a sad day for Indian Cinema, that one of the most ambitious and courageous directors, has taken a defensive and defeatist approach and has  probably compromised on professional integrity.