Movie Review — Ponniyin Selvan — Part 1 — Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam — the director has been a great visual story teller in Indian Cinema for many decades. Earlier in his career, his audience was mostly just Tamil/South Indian. But after Roja — set in the backdrop of beautiful Kashmir, and with sensational music from the genius of A.R. Rahman, with its success all across India, his movies were sought after all over Indian all over Bollywood movies had an eager audience. But none of his movies afterwards could scale such heights that Roja commanded.
Ponniyin Selvan is refreshing compared to his other movies which had cloyingly annoying dance sequences repeated in so many of his movies. In the last decade, Mani Ratnam had also lost ground to a new generation of film makers like the director of the blockbuster — Bahubali series.
Great international fantasy/period thrillers like Game of Thrones are easily accessible to Indian audiences as well, so there is stiff competition in capturing the minds and hearts of audiences. Indian film makers have always used nationalism/patriotism/jingoism to sell stories well. Though Mani Ratnam never went overboard with it, focussing more on his home audience in Tamil, rightly so, from the perspective of a proud and patriotic Tamilian within the Indian context and geography.
So, it is no surprise that he sought this story of Ponniyin Selvan — a prince of the Chola dynasty — one of the largest, successful and expansionist empires India has seen. India had many empires in its long and varied history — but Cholas were the only ones that went maritime beyond India’s borders to south-east Asia, and established their kingdoms there.
Not sure how accurate or historical this story is — the movie is entertaining, and is able to build a good story line. Selvan is the young prince currently ruling a part of the nearby island — Lanka. His father — the Chola king Sundara Cholan- is ill and there is a palace intrigue to hoist a successor — Madhuranthakan from his elder uncle’s family. Selvan’s elder brother Karikalan (played brilliantly by Vikram ) is busy fighting battles with the neighboring kingdoms like the Pandians. There are multiple intrigues in the palace that makes the story more interesting. Pandians who were decimated by Cholas, is seeking revenge to avenge their king’s death is also within the palace. Nandini (played by Aishwarya Rai) — the Madhura princess is biding her time as a young wife to an elder Chola commander who is the one plotting to usurp the kingdom by installing a puppet prince(Rahman — playing as Madhuranthakan). The enemies to the King and the prices are plentiful, and all these warring characters are introduced well. The princess are not just show pieces, they are schemers and leaders in their own right. On one side, you have Nandini, and the other side, you have Kundavi(played by Trisha) trying to thwart Nandini’s designs.
The battle scenes are just right and spectacular. It is not as melodramatic as Bahubali and not as over the top CGI. The battle scenes in water are really executed well.
Karthi and Jayaram gives good comic relief as spies. Overall, all characters are well developed. The only downside to the movie is the abrupt ending, like a serial paused at the right moment to make the audience hanging in there. So, it didn’t feel like a movie. Even Bahubali had a better ending in their first part, as each movie was complete in itself. The PS-1 ends with the princes summoned to the King’s place and the young prince Selvan in Lanka being targeted by the Pandian rebels and the Lankan enemies, and the design of the palace coterie seems to be winning.
Anyways, worth watching in a theater with beautiful immersive visual/sound experience with beautiful songs, terrific dance sequences and with the pulsating battle background score by A. R. Rahman.
Poojyam Movie Score : 85/100
Storytelling : 9/10
Not sure how faithful the film is to the original story nor to history. But the plot is convincing.
Direction : 9/10
Excellent. Better than Mani Ratnam’s movies of the last decade. The director of ‘Nayakan’ and ‘Roja’ is back!
Cinematography: 9/10
Outstanding!
Theme: 8/10
Palace Intrigue, Battles of warring armies.
Acting: 9/10
Vikram steals the show as Karikalan. Aishwarya Rai does her part by looking good as expected. Jayaram and Karthi does well. The rest does not have much screen presence yet.
Music: 9/10
Great music composition by Rahman. Not a fan of Rahman’s singing though. But he sang very well this time.
Ending: 6/10
No ending. Abrupt stop.
Social Canvas: 8/10
Period drama genre. Historical events revisited with the usual lens of the rulers and their problems.
Creativity: 9/10
Some of the characters are in the book.
Memorable Impact: 9/10
A visual treat
