Ponniyin Selvan, the two-part movie, directed by Mani Ratnam, is adapted from a historical account made interesting by fiction written by Kalki in Tamil.
The exposition of the film takes time to set up the plot when Aditha Karikalan entrusting his friend Vandhiyathevan with a message to
be delivered to his father Sundara Cholar on a delirious threat the empire is about to face with Nandhini who is the sole person making the schemes against the empire for her own reasons.
The first 20 minutes of the film felt crammed up with the introductions of characters, meaning new characters were introduced even before we could fully understand the character’s motive or the setting of the scene which was a bit problematic for me as a viewer as the movie was the only foundation to the historical events; but for those who have read the novel, they had their leisure to understand the setting and characters. Best example would be flirtatiously romantic Vandhiyathevan’s arrival into the Chola Empire, which is told in the Ponni Nadhi song. However, the movie is at the right fast pace as we don’t feel the three hours run time of the movie. For nonreaders, they might feel Vandhiyathevan is the hero but in fact the hero is Arunmozhi Varman who is introduced at the later end of the movie. None other than Mani Ratnam could pull off a feat like introducing the protagonist of the story at the very end of the movie.
Director of photography Ravi Varman made an extraordinary feat with the visuals. AR Rahman’s music score and Ravi Varmans visuals with Thotta Tharani’s production designs went hand in hand. Fine attention to details went into costume design of hair and jewelry, ranging from the emperors, Queen, nobles to the underprivileged citizens in the city.
The cast of the movie is handpicked so well that every actor performed brilliantly
the characters they portrayed. Actor Karthi’s role as Vandhiyathevan looked like his flirty characters played in his previous movies. Actor Rai Bachchan as Nandhini and Trisha K as Koondhavi carried their elegance splendidly.
The film ends in a cliffhanger but there’s
a second part coming up which will give the viewers the answers to their questions. And a note to conclude, the story read by the readers is fully subjected to their own imagination and fantasy; and both the print and visual versions could never be compared.
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