What started out as Roja and Senthamarai, is now going on strong as Tara and Leela. The reason the audience evidently remembers names of these women from the film is the uniqueness they carry with their character, the utmost sensitivity with which they’re treated but mostly, they are relatable to women from every generation.
Mani Ratnam has a knack looking deep into the hearts of women. It’s like these women come tell him their deepest secrets and eventually he carves characters out of their secrets. The actors who choose to portray the director’s characters, we see them melting into their roles just through their eyes – sadness, happiness, fear, frustration, fury, love, emptiness, almost every emotion.
To play the role of any woman character in a Mani Ratnam’s movie, an actor has to invest emotionally and physically to flow and enact exactly what this magician of a director has in his mind. Even with a character like Leela from Kaatru Veliyidai, it takes a great amount of courage to step into the shoes of an educated woman who simply allows the love of her life to abuse her to any extent and let him dominate her as much as he wishes to. Although the director faced criticism for the role, he probably is the only person to understand what actually went through Leela’s mind. Making a note of Mani Ratnam’s magic, here are 11 characters that portrayed an emotion that is not explainable:
1. Revathi as Divya: Of course, who can forget one of the most epic love stories ‘Mouna Raagam’ starring Mohan, Karthik and Revathi. The character of Divya was so beautifully portrayed. She is that woman who is stuck between her past love and her present marriage. She is the woman of two minds.
2. Manisha Koirala as Banu: Even in the late 90s if women married a man from another religion, they were supposed to leave theirs for his. But, Banu from the movie ‘Bombay’ was a fighter. she loved her husband, his family but never gave up on her faith, her family, her love and her fight for togetherness. Yes, she leaves her family to marry a Hindu Brahmin but no she does not give up her faith.
3. Madhubala as Roja: Ever heard of the story ‘Sathyavan and Savithri’ where the wife fights against the God of Death to bring back her husband’s life? That’s what is Roja from the movie ‘Roja’. Sensitive, feminine but more than that she fights to win her husband back from the terrorists who held him hostage in Kashmir where they went for their honeymoon. She is that woman who is the struggler and the fighter.
4. Meera Jasmine as Sasi: Sasi, the wife of Inba from the movie ‘Ayudha Ezhuthu’ is the one that never gives up. Her husband, who is a goon, was erratic, wild, violent. He loved her as much as he tortured her. However, she wasn’t the one to loose hope. She is that woman who is determined. She is the woman who doesn’t give up.
5. Tabu as Senthaamarai: It is never easy to be the wife of one of the most powerful politicians of Tamil Nadu. But she was powerful in her own path. She was absolutely intellectual, strong, witty and more than that she was herself. She was a lover, a best friend and a companion to her husband in the movie ‘Iruvar’. She is the woman who is powerful and strong beyond imagination.
6. Shalini as Shakthi: As strong a woman naturally is, Shakthi from ‘Alaipayudhey’ was subtle and delicate. She was the most lovable daughter, the dedicated lover and the most understanding wife. She carries the mindset of middle-class emotions consisting of anger, sadness, and happiness. Rightfully named Shakthi, she was sensitive, but, to the world she was powerful.
7. Nithya Menon as Tara: Catering to the modern generation ‘Tara’ was a bold and beautiful independent woman living together with her boyfriend Aadi in the movie ‘OK Kanmani’. Although she was what every woman ever is today, she was a gentle lover on the inside and didn’t want to lose her love and ultimately her partner amidst modernization and urbanization. She is that woman who is individual and contemporary.
8. Revathi as Chitra
What would Chitra have gone through is unimaginable. Mr. Ratnam probably was one of thise very rare creators who portrayed different forms of motherhood. He, through his women, narrates how every individual mother gives birth to a very new emotion when she gives birth to a child. Chitra, as we can see from the outside would look like any normal caring mother but her fear of losing her daughter haunts her every single day. She wants Anjali to lead a normal life but she also fears if that would make her meet her end sooner than later. Revathi beautifully captivates this conflict right through her eyes.
9. Simran as Indira Thiruchelvan
Shattering every form of societal judgements and stigma around adoption, Indira is the mother the world fails to understand. She loves her adopted daughter. There is no stopping these two from reaching the stars despite what the world says. Indira’s love for her adopted child is equal and unabated as supposed to her biological children. Her daughter her precious something, a queen in the making with a lot of wit, love and vigor just like Indira herself. Indira’s unsolicited love only goes to show that motherhood need not be biological to prove its strength.
10. Saranya Ponvannan as Neela
Probably one of the most underrated characters of Mani Ratnam has to be Neela. Neela has suffered – a young woman with millions of dreams has been pushed into hell that nobody deserves to go through. Neela’s life has been a misery and her life ended on a misery but to her death was a better relief than life itself. She wanted to be educates, she wanted to achieve and touch the sky but patriarchy pulled her down into the drains. But she continued to believe in men and in the love they share. The young woman fell in love with Velu, started a family if not school, but gave her life for the man she loved because that was her one, true escape from this unjust world.
11. Shobana as Subbulakshmi
Subbulakshmi’s conflict was probably the most unacceptable one by the audience but that’s only another kind of a woman existing in this world. She chose her path and made her choice. We wonder how the judgement would have looked like had it been the decision of a man. It wasn’t easy for her either but making a difficult choice is harder than making an easier one. Oh, want a chaotic conflict that must have been for her – a conflict between love and reality.
Mani Ratnam is not simply called a mastermind for his unbelievable frames and his unique directorial narratives but most importantly for the love he has for his women. I think that is a rare gift to find in men in general.