Falling in love with the 'Enemy'

His Lotto shoes thrown carelessly in a corner, Mani Ratnam is rushing between editing rooms in his socks. "No, no. The sound of the rain is too tinny, too metallic," he says, interrupting a reel. "Isn't there too much red in that shot?" he asks as the scene progresses. After eight months of frenetic work, Mani Ratnam's wrenching new film Bombay is almost ready for a mid-January release.

The stress is telling on the director as he becomes increasingly irritable. A part of the tension is the Bombay team's race against time as they put finishing touches to the film. But a good part of the tension for Mani Ratnam is in carefully guarding the film from the public eye, in his own film-making tradition that has not, as yet, been broken. Secretive to a fault, he is doing everything he can to ensure that only a handful of people see the film before it hits the cinema screens.

After the smash Tamil hit Roja conquered film-goers all over the country in its dubbed Hindi version, making a box-office match is quite a task. Mani Ratnam is braving himself for a Tamil-Telugu-Hindi release of Bombay. "Right now I'm in the process of wrapping up the film and that is my prime concern. The nervousness will come after the release," he says candidly.

Mani Ratnam's new film deals with the explosive theme of communalism. He himself is loath to describe the story of the film, asking, "If the story can be described in a few lines, why make a three-hour film on it?" Bombay is a story of a romance between a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl. While Hindi films by the dozen have dealt with rich-poor, upper caste-lower caste or even Hindu-Christian romances, Mani Ratnam's film crosses a fresh communal barrier. But going much beyond a purely simplistic theme, the director has chosen to set the film in Bombay against the Hindu-Muslim riots.

As Bombay is being readied for the censors, Mani Ratnam is hoping that the film will be uncontroversial. "It is a positive film about communal harmony. The censors shouldn't have a problem at all. On the contrary, I think they should give me a pat on the back," he says. The director explains that his film is not about the communal riots but about a helpless, innocent man caught up in violence not of his own making. "Doesn't this happen in real life? Why is the subject a controversy?"

The protagonist, played by Mani Ratnam's Roja hero Arvind Swami, works in a newspaper in Bombay and is just returning to his village. He sees the heroine-played by Manisha Koirala - at the boat jetty and it is a classic case of love at first sight. Despite friends warning him of the implications of falling in love with a Muslim, the hero courts her ardently Arvind Swami describes his role: "It's definitely more satisfying than Roja, altogether different."

When he returns to his job in Bombay the hero writes to his love asking her to join him. Much against the wishes of their parents, the hero and heroine get married and begin their life in a chawl. They have twins, named Kabir and Kamal. On the surface, life is smooth for a couple of years. But then, tension builds up as events such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid overtake them. Communal riots erupt in the city and all hell breaks loose.

In the ensuing drama, the children are lost. Their grandparents, since reconciled to the marriage, are on a visit and are killed in a fire. The children are witness to the scenes of massacre and mayhem. One of them is rescued by a hijra (eunuch), and cannot explain whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim. The identity crisis of the hijra echoes the little boy's own crisis.

Arvind Swami and Manisha Koirala in Bombay

The album was released six weeks ahead of the film and has shown impressive sales. Rahman, himself a converted Muslim, says he identified so strongly with the theme that "I had to pack up my feelings when I composed the score".

The technique is a departure from the Mani Ratnam formula of top lighting, soft bounces and diffused frames. The entire film was shot in real light or recreated natural lighting. Says ace cinematographer Rajiv Menon who directed the photography: "Mani's earlier films have staccato delivery, slow motion and dark effects. In this film the lighting is natural, the dialogues flow and the shots are languid."

Menon says that unlike in Nayakan and Agninakshatram where technique was upfront, in Bombay technique has receded into the background. Most of the film has been shot on sets erected in Madras, but it is hard to tell. Says Thota Tarani, art director of Nayakan, Roja and Thiruda Thiruda: "I want people to see the film and say 'did they shoot in Bombay or what?' We went in for massive sets. The subject of the film needed it."

And then there is that typical Mani Ratnam touch. Hindu-Muslim harmony comes across strongly. Manisha is shown offering namaz and reading the Quran. A Muslim, Nasser, has been cast in the role of the Hindu father while a Hindu plays the Muslim father. And Manisha, who has put in her best onscreen performance-"She's very expressive. I'm happy with her work," says Mani Ratnam - has been deglamourised for her role as a Tirunelveli belle.

With one politically correct film after another, Mani Ratnam doesn't know what his next subject will be. For the moment, he is waiting to gauge the reaction to Bombay. "It is very important that I know how this film is received before I decide what I want to do next."