Mani Ratnam, who has also co-written and co-produced Thug Life, believes people tend to judge relationships between men and women with an age gap on screen
Mani Ratnam on Kamal Haasan-Trisha's 30-year age gap in Thug Life
The trailer of Mani Ratnam's next, Thug Life, might have many moments for the audience to cheer, but there's also something that has left the fans displeased-- a moment of intimacy between Kamal Haasan and Trisha Krishnan's characters, given close to 30-year age gap between the two actors.
But the filmmaker, who has also co-written and co-produced the gangster action drama, believes people tend to judge relationships between men and women with an age gap on screen, even though such equations exist in real life.
"Let me put it this way, this way, in real life, there are people, slightly older, who have a relationship with a younger person, male or female. There are. It is a fact of life. It's been like that for a long time. It's not just now. When it's in cinema, we try to find fault with it or pass judgment on it, which means you are trying to cover or close your eyes to what is happening in your society and claim that it should be only this way," he tells mid-day in an interview.
The filmmaker says the scene should be viewed in the context of the relationship between the two characters, not the age difference between the actors playing these parts.
"It is (about) how these two people meet. It is not Trisha Krishnan and Kamal Haasan. It is (about) their respective characters. So that is what it should be. And if you see the film, the relationship, how it formed and whether it is real or not, then you can make a judgment, not based on Trisha Krishnan and Kamal Haasan," he elaborates.
The debate around the romance between male and female stars with a significant age gap has grown over the years. But while older men romancing much younger female stars on screen is still a norm in Indian cinema, the reverse rarely makes its way to the screen. So, it begs the question if Ratnam finds the lack of acceptance for romance between older woman and younger man, both on screen and in life, hypocritical. "That's the way society is. Society is not perfect. It is hypocritical," the filmmaker answers.
Over his four-decade career, Ratnam has created rich female characters that have agency and exist independent of the men in a story. But even today, when he looks around, the filmmaker finds women fighting for their due in the society.
"There are a lot of times that women are not given the due. And the concept of an older woman having a relationship with a younger man is one of them. It is a fact. No one can deny that. I know it is a rough time. The women have to constantly battle for what they deserve and is rightfully theirs. But I'm glad the battle is happening now. People are voicing out, and people are becoming independent. Women are standing up for themselves. And it's a wonderful thing to see," he says.
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