Money-Ratnam
Its been quite some time since i blogged.Shreya my daughter was keeping me busy.Finally i found some time to pen my thoughts on something which iam interseted in-Movies!!!!!.For the past one month(Since my family left for india) i have been trying to kill time with old movies. I happened to revisit a few by this director-Mani Ratnam.
I have realised that there has been no director in india (Through out the History of Indian cinema )who has understood this medium of entertainment so well than him.Movies i feel are like products with a value preposition.When you launch them you need to make it for the most profitable segment.We know that in a country like India you have an intensely diverse set of audiance with varying tastes ranging from sleazy movies to movies of substance.Its a tough decision to acknowledge your target audience and deliver the right kind product(The movie) to satisfy them.In this decision the segment has to be profitable too to get the money you have invested(ROI).
Mani ratnam differentiates himselves from other directors in this particular challenging task of Identifying the most profitable target audiance and evolving with that segment.The reason why other directors of his times have failed is that they tried to move with their audiance even when they turned out to be non profitable.To make it simpler directors in the late 80’s who made movies for the youth then-(The profitable segment is always the young working class who has the capabilty to spend money on entertainment without any inhibitions) tried to move with them even when they turned out to be non-profitable.The youth of 80’s after 10 years had different priorites in life than earlier.They changed,they were probably tied up in the nuisances of life(Schooling of children,EMI’s),they stopped spending on entertainment.That segment perished.
Mani always tried to make contemporary movies catering to the profitable segment(The youth).He moved with them understanding their tastes their preferences,thier way of living,their concept of romancing.This is probably reflected in all his movies starting from Nayakan to Guru.His characters always reflected the evolving society,be it the don in nayakan in the 80’s or the visionary in Guru .The characters were picked from real life.
He used this in every aspect of the movie.The dampankuthu in nayakan (Nela adhu vanathu mele) to (Trance Music Fana) in Yuva.He understood the audiance to the core.Another aspect to his success was the timing of each movies.Thats critical to the success.A movie with a particular theme needs to be introduced at the right time to strike the right note with the audiance.He has done it terribly well. Guru would have bombed if it was introduced in 80’s.Its the same concept of Introducing i Pod to the Baby boomers.That would have failed because the consumer is not ready to accept that product at that pont of time.There is an evolution process that a consumer goes through before his acceptance to various products.
I know that he is an MBA grad and he has been using all these concepts very well in the business of movies which he has mastered.After all movies are like any other product.
He is really Money-Ratnam!!!
