Stories of relationships in a conflict zone. Mani Ratnam has been in that space before, in films like Roja and Bombay among others. The new trailer of his forthcoming film Kaatru Veliyidai ( Cheliyaa in Telugu), scheduled to release on April 7, introduces us to two strong individuals and their intense romance in a rugged, conflict territory.
Life and death
Interacting with the media during the audio launch in the city, Mani Ratnam explains, “You can narrate several stories about relationships. Anyone’s life can be a film; there are so many ups and downs one goes through. Conflict zones have also been used as a tool in hundreds of films. It’s not a one-off thing. Such a backdrop helps you narrate your story and see your characters in a different fashion.”
There are glimpses of two, strong willed individuals who cannot tear away from each other, even under trying circumstances. Karthi plays a fighter pilot and Aditi Rao Hydari is cast as a doctor. “The dramatic backdrop where you see life and death around you everyday, gives you a chance to evaluate yourself and your relationships,” says Ratnam.
Instantly catchy numbers like Hamsaro and Jugni might make one look forward to a breezy romance, but Cheliyaa isn’t one, emphasises Karthi. “This is not Ok Kanmani ( Ok Bangaram in Telugu) or Sakhi ,” says the actor. For Karthi, who worked as an assistant director with Mani Ratnam during Yuva , it was a homecoming. The fact that Mani Ratnam asked him to act in his film didn’t come as a surprise, but the choice of character did. “When I returned from the US and worked on my debut film (the Tamil film Paruthiveeran which saw him in a rustic look), it was something very different. Ten years later, after people have seen me in roles like the one I did in Oopiri , Mani Ratnam asked me to play a fighter pilot. I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. I worked on my physique, learnt by observing fighter pilots. The learning process in this film made me feel more confident and intelligent,” says Karthi.
Karthi’s inherent sense of humour comes to the fore when he adds, “I thought my brother (Suriya) or a Di Caprio would look good in such a suave role, not me. Apart from the acting experience, I learnt that I could actually lose weight.”
While Karthi is fairly fluent with Telugu and looked at ease, both Aditi and Mani Ratnam took the extra effort to speak in Telugu reading out a few lines written by Suhasini Mani Ratnam.
Aditi Rao Hydari and Karthi
Talking about her first experience of working with the Madras Talkies team, Aditi let her fan girl excitement show through. She compared the “magical experience” to being a part of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree. “On the first day I was given pages with lengthy dialogues and was nearly in tears. But that handicap of not knowing the language became a blessing because I got to speak that much more with Mani Ratnam sir and understand the nuances of each line. I don’t think I acted. I felt and reacted to situations,” she says.
25 years since ‘Roja’
It’s been 25 years since Roja (1992), when Mani Ratnam, A R Rahman and lyricist Vairamuthu began working together. The magic is intact. The Telugu version is helped by lyricist Seetharama Sastry, who emphasises that one shouldn’t merely translate while working on a dubbed version. “Then you lose the resonance of the language. The entire story was narrated to me and I was given complete freedom to write the way I interpreted the situations,” he says.
Commending the lyricist, Ratnam says, “It was fantastic to see how he understood the story, internalised it and gave us very good lyrics. I believe a lyricist takes the film to the next level.”
Rahman, on his part, observed how many have told him that quite often the dubbed Telugu versions end up sounding better than the Tamil originals. “I think it has to do with the inherent sweetness in Telugu language. When I was growing up, we got to observe all the four southern industries working simultaneously at AVM Studios. Things have changed since then and I am proud of how the Telugu industry has grown. Today everyone’s attention is on Baahubali .”
