The worrying forms of mythological directors Shankar and Mani Ratnam
Legendary directors Shankar and Mani Ratnam changed the scenario of Tamil cinema with their works. However, his recent outings have been killed by harsh criticism, especially due to poor screenplay writing.
In short
- 2025 watched most big budget spectacles at the box office
- Recent films of Shankar and Mani Ratnam faced heavy criticism
- Both directors need to be restructured for a possible return
To gain fame to a director, his film must succeed. For an industry to succeed, the spectacle films of the big budget must be successful. However, 2025 saw most of the tent-pole films with some exceptions at the box office, with certainly some exceptions.
Starting with Shankar and Ram Charan’s ‘Game Changer’ for the recently released film ‘Thug Life’ by Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan, many tent of tent films faced serious criticism. Five months in 2025, it is small and medium-budget films that have found the love of the audience, if not in theaters but on the OTT platforms.
The criticisms of ‘Game Changer’ and ‘Thug Life’ reflect a major underlying problem: the form of two mythological directors, who churned out timeless classics over the years.
While Mani Ratnam is undergoing ups and downs over the years, as director Shankar, especially with some of his previous films, worrying.
Shankar – Visionaror for Hunting Your Own Sutra
Three decades, 15 films and one of India’s most famous directors – Shankar is a person who dreamed and turned those dreams into reality. Known for his grand vision, technological innovation and discovery of corruption on screen, Shankar has been a pioneer in dolling ground-breaking spectacle films since his debut with ‘Gentleman’ in 1993.
By 2012, all his films proved their subtlety, and also pushed the envelope for Tamil cinema. His films gave filmmakers a chance to dream big. It should be ‘Indian’, ‘Mudhalavan’, ‘Jeans’, ‘Annian’, ‘Shivaji: The Boss’ or ‘Thron’, each film showcased the top-wise writing with technical talent.
Shankar’s favorite theme to find out in cinema is corruption. From his first film to the recently offered, ‘Game Changer’, his films have dealt with corruption in various ways. However, his decreasing form has been worrisome since 2015.
Many people give writer Sujath, his frequent colleague to his suspicious form. He died in 2008, and it seems that it had an impact. In 2015, Shankar imagined a film ‘I’ about the virus affecting the presence of a supermodel on a large scale of Rs 100 crore in 2015. The film, which was filmed for more than 2.5 years, was undergoing harsh physical changes with Vikram, a lukewarm response, a lack screenplay.
His 2018 film, ‘2.0’, the sequel to Rajinikanth’s ‘Thron’, also criticized for its script. Even though the film was collected 800 crores (with a budget of Rs 600 crore), critics questioned its erudition treatment.
After ‘2.0’, Shankar returned with Kamal Haasan’s ‘Indian 2’ – a difference of five years. However, it ended as a magnificent disappointment. He followed it with ‘Game Changer’, which again received a negative review. Some of the common criticisms analyzing his recent films are more dependence on grandeur than the screenplay. From the point of view of production, he has been accused of budget overran and delay. His worrying form has questioned his efforts to adapt to the current trend of film production.
Mani Ratnam: Ride of waves of success and failure
Mani Ratnam is an autism, which mixes the storytelling with her sophisticated presentation. After starting her career with the Kannada film ‘Pallavi Anu Pallavi’ in 1983, to set foot in Malayalam with ‘Anruam’, he again settled in Tamil by distributing one classic one after another.
With his specific voice and artistic depth, his films discovered diverse human emotions in addition to exploitation in socio-political issues. By giving us many love stories, which are still relevant to the discovery of complex subjects, they have brought Tamil cinema to strength.
His early films presented urban stories in a different light. This is’ Mauna Ragam ‘, a story about a systematic marriage couple, or’ Bombay ‘, a film that deal with inter-confidence marriage and communal riots, for’ Anjali ‘, a film about parents that raise a child with cognitive disorder’, Mani Ratnam has given many super hit films, who have a permanent impact on people.
Not just romance, Mani Ratnam’s films also talked about politics. Whether it is’ Irruvar ‘or’ Dil Se ‘or’ Kannathil Mutital or ‘Ayya Izuthu’, he discovered politics through a lens, which no one had tried till then. However, these were the last few films, especially since 2013, criticized.
In 2013, he presented ‘Kadal’, which was a deepened film. But it opened for negative reviews. However, he followed ‘Oh Kadhal Kanmani – a pair about a film that does not believe in marriage – which ended as a big hit. His next film, ‘Katu Veliyidai’ – was a film on a toxic relationship at the end of heavy trolling and criticism.
His 2018 film ‘Cheka Shivantha Vanam’, which discovered Shakti Sangharsh, received a large extent. Mani Ratnam also challenged the inclusion of a popular Tamil literary novel, ‘Ponyin Selvan’ in a two-part film. While the first part was well obtained, the second part had opinion polarization. However, with his latest outing, ‘Thug Life’, he is facing mass trolling from all quarters. Kamal Haasan-starrer is moving towards a disaster at the box office.
Mani Ratnam’s last few films suggest that the filmmaker needs a renovation to evaluate the sensations of today’s audience.
While Shankar and Mani Ratnam’s recent forms increase concerns, their brilliant careers prove that great filmmakers can overcome creative recession. With his career trajectory, he is just a film from redemption. It lies in their desire to customize the key, collaborate with fresh voices, and find out the magic that once re -discover them that makes them legends once.
