Mani Ratnam is a leading director who is a well-known actress in India. The hit director and music director combo of Mani Ratnam and A.R. Rahman have worked together for over 30 years since the film Roja. Mani Ratnam then worked with A.R. Rahman in every one of his films and has delivered many all-time favourite songs to fans. The name of the combo is enough to create anticipation and excitement among fans. They have also worked together in the two-part films Ponniyin Selvan.
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Mani Ratnam and A.R. Rahman gave an exclusive new interview with the national award-winning critic Baradwaj Rangan, the editor-in-chief of Galatta Plus. The interviewer asked "both of you to have done three-period films together Iruvar and Ponniyin Selavn 1 & 2, What was the essential difference between the two in music? Mani Ratnam said “I think one thing we thought of for Iruvar is. We were convinced that it (the music) should evoke that period but not imitate that period. Not to just use only those things, but interpret them in a different way. I did not know if it could be done, we set out and he was able to do that. It will be set out in that period but was still old." A.R. Rahman then said “For me, that period is so sacred, with Kannadasan, MS Vishwanathan, Ramamoorthy, K.V. Mahadevan, and for me even to do a little bit of that was so special. I respect that and the lyrics and you know the tune and P.Susheela’s voice and all that stuff, so yeah...”.
Mani Ratnam continued that "we are trying to make a 10th century, no one known what music was there. The only image that we have is the kind of music that has been done for a period film 20 years back or 40 years back. That itself could be a modern version of what could have been there in that century. In our mind, we are stuck with being there and being authentic, which is not necessarily true. So, we decided not to get caught in that zone and go beyond it and create a world that can suggest and makes a bridge that connects. Today, for youngster's music is the kind of bridge between the two instead of sounding like an old black-and-white film. It has this modern today's film sounds”.
When asked about Narumugaiye song from Iruvar, Mani Ratnam said "We had a song for every decade in the movie and Narumgaiye was the most traditional classical one but the feel it treated is different." A.R. Rahman then said “Also the choice of lyrics, we were having fun. We were in Maldives or Bangalore and Vairamuthu sir gave a lyrics and I said can we push it, can we go really old lyrics. He said nobody will understand. I said if we understand they will understand and I think even if you take 50s, 60s there were no ancient lyrics. So, I don't care if you don't understand, sometimes we know what they need instead of what they want.” About Aga Naga and Devaralan Aattam songs from PS: 1, The music composer shared more about using classical Tamil poetry in songs and about lyricist Ilango Krishnan and said "Now, we have AI. Tamil is a language with which we can explore so much we must bring some ancient song back and push it."
