ABSTRACT:
A keen eye for cinematography, rim lighting and picturesqueness of films are Mani Ratnam's benchmark in films. Right from his initial films, his portrayal of crossover culture is apparent and evident, which was exploited to its fullest. In his ventures such as Roja, Bombay, and, Nayagan, the protagonists travel from typical south Indian urban or suburban areas and moves to metropolitan cities. The love lives usually start in a conflict in a tranquil remote area cutting across social, economic or across religious borders. Protagonists cut through linguistic, cultural and demographic borders. This crossover phenomenon is conspicuous in all his movies. Maniratnam tends to use crossover as a tool in his works, to achieve a twin objective of firstly glorifying Tamil culture across borders and secondly ensuring a wider audience for his films. The typical travel of the characters in all his ventures may be termed crossovers for the simple reason that they travel across states and cultures. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) offers provision to capture the essence of ambivalence built into all these characters. For analysis, five films were selected, one film per decade is selected for the past decades; Nayagan (1980's), Roja (1990's), Alaipayuthey (2000's), and two films are selected for the current decade; Ok kanmani (2010's) and Katru Veliyidai (2010's). An in-depth study into his plots, mise-en-scene, props, and characterization reveal, a systematic, attempt to perpetuate patriarchal hegemonic and pro-elitist values in the society with a twin motive to appease the audience and safeguard the social structure, be it feudal, patriarchal or national.