Dil Se...

Maniratnam has been one of the leading film maker of our time .Im a
great fan of his movies. I've watched almost all his films except the
kannada and Malayalam ones.

Here is a small note on some his interests that I've observed in his movies-

He has some obsession with Trains. Almost all his movies has a scene
which has railway station or trains.
Some of his movies that features either train or railway stations are:
Mouna ragam and Gitanjali – climax of both the movies are shot in this
background

Dil se and Agninakshatram has songs in trains/stations. In fact some
of the first shots of dil se is also in a station

In Alaipayuthe (saathiya in hindi) he has made both train and station
an integral part of the movie

Dalapathy has baby rajnikanth being sent off in a goods train

Kanathil Muthamittal, Iruvar, Bombay and Ayutha ezhuthu(Yuva) feature
both trains and stations

I don't remember exactly (yes it is one of his most forgettable
movies)but I think thiruda thiruda's climax is in railway track

I think Roja ,nayakan and anjali doesn't have a scene that has trains
or railway stations. tell me if im wrong

I think he is also the first person to introduce the concept of what
we know today as an 'Item number'. Though he picturised songs with
lesser known stars in movies like Nayagan he cast Sonu Walia in
Dalapathy in the song 'Rakkama' way back in 1991. In Bombay we saw
Sonali Bendre in 'Humma Humma' but the most famous of all is the
chaiyya chaiyya with Maliaka Arora. Sofia Haque appeared in the song
'September Matham' in Alaipayuthe

He also loves my mother tongue- Malayalam

Stars from Kerala who has appeared in his movies are Mohan Lal ,
Mamooty, KPAC Lalitha, Sukumari , Manoj K Jayan, Meera Jasmine …( I
haven't seen his Malayalam movie 'unaroo'. So there should be more in
this list)

Movie Dil Se had Preity Zinta playing a Keralite and also we had
Malayalam lyrics in 'Jiya Jale'
There were Malayalam speaking characters in Bombay and Alaipayuthe

Pls feel free to comment/mail if you know more about some of the
common features in his movie or if you can help me add members to the
above list