Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani starring Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menen completes eight years today.
Eight years ago, the charming Aditya and the enigmatic Tara zoomed their way into our hearts; courtesy Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani. Set in Mumbai, the breezy romance told the tale of two youngsters in a live-in relationship and what happens when they come across old-fashioned love and marriage.
Besides the eye-pleasing visuals captured by PC Sreeram, the frothy love story also left us spellbound with some memorable songs that were perfectly woven into the narrative.
One such track in the film is ‘Mental Manadhil’ picturized on Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menen having the best time of their lives on a bike ride across the city of Mumbai. With catchy words like ‘Mana Mana’ and ‘Laka Laka’ sprinkled in the lyrics, the song has vocals by AR Rahman and Jonita Gandhi.
But, do you know that there’s an interesting story behind those cool audio-visuals?
Well, apparently, director Mani Ratnam shot the visuals much before AR Rahman could deliver him the song. He filmed the postcard-inspired footage of Mumbai city in 6 fps (frame per second) and the rest portion featuring Dulquer and Nithya on the bike in 24 fps. For those who don’t know, a movie is generally shot in 24 fps. Ratnam had shot the city landscape at a particular frame rate to give it a blurry effect.
However, later, when editor Sreekar Prasad played the song to the assembled version, it looked underwhelming. That’s when he was hit by an idea on the editing table. Prasad suggested the filmmaker to apply strobe effect to all the regular shots by reducing the frame rate to match the 6-fps footage and then digitally recreate it. The duo made the visuals a bit slower at regular intervals and behold, you had magic on screen!
The next time when you hit the play button for this groovy number, you now know what makes it so special!
