A Peck on the Cheek Director: Mani Ratnam Country: India Year: 2002

Mani Ratnam was in town for the Toronto International Film Festival to promote his spectacular new film, A Peck on the Cheek. I had a chance to meet him during his stay in Toronto, and here is a transcript of our conversation.

AO: Mr. Ratnam, a lot of your films, particularly Anjali and Peck, display a profound understanding of the psychology of the child and you portray children as complex individuals with complex personalities, and strength. What has been the basis of your in-depth knowledge of children, and have you had any child influences in your life?

MR: These two [Anjali and Peck} were two completely different kinds of films. Anjali for example was about a special child, and that was something that was very close to me. To do that film, we had to do a lot of study and work before we actually embarked on that project. It's been nearly ten years since I've done that film - between Anjali and Peck. After ten years, I'm looking again at a girl child where the situation and complexities are completely different. It somehow doesn't just represent a character but a community of refugees. In one sense, this child is adopted by a family and in another larger sense this entire community of refugees are adopted by a country; the film portrays how they cope with it, and still yearn for their mother and motherland. The film uses Amudha as a window through which we look at the home at its troubles.

AO: So in a way, Amudha is a metaphor for the displaced Sri Lankans?

MR: Not just Sri Lankans, Sri Lanka is portrayed in this film, but it is a problem that is being faced all over the world. Various parts of the world are going through similar problems. It just represents a character through which we can look at this.

AO: I noticed in the credits that you partnered with several Sri Lankan organizations to make this film. Did you face conflict in making this film given the current situation?

MR: No, absolutely not, not at all. A lot of Sri Lankan nativity was required for the film so we had the help of quite a few Sri Lankan Tamils to ensure that the language they speak and the diction etc. was close to what they actually use in Jaffna.

AO: A running theme in some of your films, notably, Roja, Dil Se and Peck, has been family relationships set against a background of war and terrorism. What is the basis for this juxtaposition?

MR: I think it's what is happening around us since the past fifteen or twenty years. Every day you go through a newspaper, and what you're looking at is the turbulence that is going on around the length and breadth of the world. It is not something that is happening far away; it is happening next to you and sometimes inside your house. The conflict is not distant - it's not just a newspaper item anymore. A riot takes place in Bombay, it's taking place right in front of you - the tension is there all around you. It's not far away from the world you live in. All of us have a reaction to it, an opinion, and unfortunately you're in touch with it every day which brings the problem right inside your house; this is what the films take a view from. If that's what you're going to use as a theme for your film, then it's best brought across the people, through characters and relationships and how they go through life with this going on in the background.
That's what I try to do.

AO: Yes, I noticed that you humanize the issue of terrorism and illustrate the effect it has on the family unit - I found this particularly fascinating, because it brings so many emotions to the surface. Do you have any special techniques that you use to bring out such raw emotion in your characters? Especially the relationship between Thiru, Indra and Amudha - it's the first time in an Indian film that I've seen that kind of parent-child relationship where despite the fact that Sri Lanka was a war-torn society, Thiru puts everything aside because the fact that his child was in anguish was enough reason to take her there. It displayed parental love to the extreme. How did accomplish this with your characters?

MR: Actually, that was an aspect which was really difficult; to convince somebody that he would actually take his child across to a place where she was born even though the place is full of problems. We had to make it very clear across the film that the kind of person he is - the kind of writer he is who is sensitive to issues, who is sensitive to relationships and who is somehow an idealist at heart who is not scared, who will go ahead and do what he thinks is right. And because of that kind of personality that the character portrays, it just becomes an extension of his philosophy to life, his philosophy to writing, that he would do something which he thinks is right, and not hesitate. That is sometimes the way - the character dictates the way things should go - they have a life of their own, they just take you along on the path that would be right for the film. That's sometimes what leads you on.

AO: So, you're able to build these characters and then they have their own psychology and their own way of doing things?

MR: Once you've built the character, it has its own rules. You know this character will not do a few things but will do a few things so that directs you and if you're honest with that, the emotion comes across generally - if you're consistent with the character and if he plays it with that consistency then it comes across.

AO: Moving away to another topic, another aspect of your films I find incredibly moving is the music. The music of A.R. Rahman touches the film. I've come to associate certain technical aspects of your filmmaking, the visuals in combination with the music as a signature - I can always recognize a Mani Ratnam film! And I know a lot of people feel the same way. How do you feel the music of A.R. Rahman contributes to your films? What do you feel he brings to the film?

MR: Well, I think music is really an integral part of any film and especially so for an Indian film which is in the mainstream where music is not just a background but is a content of the film. So, once you're in that format, the music becomes very important. When you start the film, you start working on the music at the start of the film. Once I decide what script, what film I'm planning to do then I start sitting with the music director right at that moment and we decide the tone we are looking for in this film - that we will go for something like "this" - so it's not something we've done before, it has to be apt for the type of film. This film, for example, is with an eight-year old child so we had two nodes with which we went - one, is how the child would think and behave, a certain amount of energy - when you picturise the songs they get transformed into today's image - children are used to computer games and things going topsy turvy - so we tried to capture that in the visual also. Similarly, we do the same thing with the music. On another plane, we look at a mother, and look at a yearning for peace. So, the music for the entire film operates within these two scales. Even when it is a torn and ravaged country; you still are playing within these two emotions. So, those kinds of parameters are what we decide upon early, and this is something that Rahman is able to understand and work very easily with. To an extent, he is fairly abstract in the way he composes, it's not very specific to a particular thing - it's an overall mood he tries to capture; sometimes you do not play on the same key - if the scene is on one key, you try to play the music on an entirely different key so that it acts as a counterpoint to the visual. So, he's able to do those things very, very well, and he brings in a certain amount of today's feel without losing the soul of the entire film.

AO: I noticed that in the song "Sundari" where Amudha's personality is first introduced to the audience - the passionate pace of the music really captures her personality - the volatile nature. And another place where I noticed the music is when they're traveling to Sri Lanka - in the car, the beat changes, it becomes a little Carribean, a little reggae, and you feel the happy optimism of the child.

MR: Yes, the things she's going to see - her mother, homeland…what we've used is called in Sri Lanka a "bayla" - it's their kind of music, influenced very heavily by the Portuguese.

AO: it's got a Goan feel…

MR: Yes, that's the same belt. So that's what we used, a "bayla" kind of a beat to give you a sense of Sri Lanka and a sense of joy, optimism

AO: It was very exciting - the music adds to the whole experience. As, I mentioned, Mani Ratnam has a distinctive, unique style and I'm interested in knowing what have been your cinematic influences in developing this style?

MR: There's plenty! I think a lot of good films and a lot of bad films have influenced me. Bad films motivate you to say "I can do better than that" and yes, there have been lots of influences, filmmakers like Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray, Truffault - any good film gives you a high.

AO: That's why I'm a big fan of the film festival because you're able to see international cinema that doesn't usually come to Toronto. How did you feel about that and do you have any plans for any international collaborations?

MR: International collaborations if it happens. I don't know - I'm not closed to the idea, but if there was something exciting, yes.

AO: As a filmmaker, what are your goals for the future?

MR: When I got into films, when I was doing my first film, I thought I should get a chance to make one more film at least, and today I still feel the same way - that I should get the chance to do my next film. So you take it one by one - there are goals in that you always want to do better. The standard of world cinema is so high that you think you should move up several notches, but you want to move up without losing the audience that you have, without losing the ability to communicate with the people who are living around you. So you want to go with them and still keep moving. That's what you try to do - remain in the mainstream but still be able to do better and better.

AO: That's very true - watching yesterday's film - it has the visual beauty and music to captivate a mainstream audience, yet in many ways it's an art film because it's dealing with topics that are not typically addressed in Indian cinema. Do you see perhaps branching out into more artistic films?

MR: I think India went through a very strong parallel cinema movement - very very strong; I think the impact of it is definitely there even today. I think we are all making better cinema because of the art films, parallel films, that were made sometime back. I think the impact of Satyajit Ray or Shyam Benegal. I think Shyam Benegal has single-handledly influenced a lot of mainstream filmmakers in terms of details. Because he was making films in Hindi it was reaching an entire nation, and you could see someone looking at the details of art direction, direction, music direction, editing, lighting, casting, the performances he was getting. So, all of those have somehow rubbed off - I think in some of my films, I've been influenced very strongly by those kind of films that are very realistic and which make it absolutely down to earth - the way people are dressed, the way people behave, the body language. To a large extent, art films have very strongly influenced mainstream filmmakers and I'm sure that will continue. What I think is happening with Indian cinema is that it's getting close to being international. I think whatever is happening with Indian writing in English is going to happen in film shortly.

AO: I hope so. The past couple of years has given us some hope. It was disturbing when the art cinema began to falter in the past few years - so to see that reemerging in regional cinema is encouraging. Are you planning on dubbing this film in Hindi?

MR: No, not really. It's too rooted in Tamil. I don't think this is the right film to release in Hindi.

AO: Thanks very much for your time - it's been a pleasure speaking with you.