Mani wants Dil Se tax-free

Though half of the committee which recommends the tax cut was not present, the screening took place. And Mani Ratnam took pains to explain his visually brilliant film to the bureaucrats — not much to do with entertainment but everything to do with tax — who sat on judgment.

“We are trying to bring the social concerns plaguing our country to main stream cinema. In our limited way, we are tried to reach out to the people of the peripheral/bordering states — their problems, their lives and their loves,” the soft-spoken filmmaker humbly put his point across, without overtly lobbying for the tax-free certificate.

Dil Se, a love-story revolving around terrorist activities in Assam, has been sluggish at the box-office nationally. An entertainment tax-free certificate would cut ticket prices by a whopping 60 per cent revenue that the government charges on each ticket, might turn out to be a life-giver for Dil Se.

“The problem with mainstream cinema is that it never locates the films in a geographically identifiable territory. The place of the event/narrative is always kept vague. I am changed that,” Ratnam said. “I tried to see the terrorist effected peripheral states as one unit of India and the relatively peaceful central states as the other side of the country. The protagonists — the girl and the boy — represents the two sides. They are in love, they want to reach out to each other but there is a huge divide. The reality is different,” Ratnam said.

However in the hands of cinematographer Santosh Sivan, beautiful Leh lends itself more to the songs than the filmmaker’s higher idea.

But Mani Ratnam quietly puts up a staunch defence: “All the border states are suffering from similar problems of insurgency. Repression has not been able to stem the trouble. Their demands and sentiments have to be taken care instead. Maybe we should try to understand them and extend a warm hand. And that is what Dil Se tries to do”.