For those who follow Tamil cinema, she is perhaps the face of Sindhu Bhairavi, for those who follow Kannada cinema, she is the face of Bandhana.
Suhasini Maniratnam has an equally dedicated fan following even among Telugu and Malayalam film-goers. The actor, who was in the city for a seminar at the Bengaluru International Film Festival BIFFes, proved how she can straddle these worlds of regional cinema, being able to speak all four languages with ease. The binding factor, most people believe, is her radiant smile. And her candidness and sense of humour, that seem to come very naturally to her.
She spoke of how she was 16 when she first spoke English because she studied in a Tamil- medium school, of social media trolling women, of how husband and filmmaker Mani Ratnam threatens to throw her scripts in the bin if she won't write it better. She also had her say on how women are yet to find a strong voice in society and films, and women have only themselves to blame for it, because we are not risk takers.
Somewhere in between, she declared her love for Karnataka’s bisi bele bhath, avarekai saaru, and masaal dosey. Soon after the seminar, she had an exclusive chat with MetroPlus . Excerpts:
There was so much talk about language today at the seminar. But everyone says cinema has a universal language...
For people to understand, you can’t speak ‘cinema’ (laughs). Cinema doesn't have alphabets, so you have to go to the local language. Even in England, if they make a movie in London they have to make it in the Cockney accent, they can’t make a film with the English spoken in the BBC. So cinema has to be realistic to the area that it is set in.
So when you say cinema has a universal language, what do we mean?
It makes you dance, it makes you cry, it makes you jump.
It is a universal language because it is the same emotions. Everything is the same. It is another language like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, French. Cinema by itself is a language.
Everybody asks you about differences between you and Mani Ratnam as a creative couple. What is working together like?
That is the best part of the marriage — the way we sit together and come up with ideas.
You spoke of how women tend to take the easy route out in life. So you mean we are limiting ourselves?
Yes, we are, for survival. For security. We are not taking risks. Because if I say something now on this topic, there is so much negativity that comes from society. That was not there is the 70s and the 80s.
Today there is so much backlash for any comment. Like for Shobhaa De - anything she says, they abuse her. Not fair.
Why do you think it is so?
The more women grow economically, there will be more allegations against them. If they don’t grow, if they are quiet, nobody is going to find fault with them. They are emerging as winners. Why do you make comments on politicians and actors? Women are growing equal to men, or doing even better, so that is the jealousy of society as a whole showing; not just of the men.
