Dussehra week had movie release of a Tamilian epic story — Ponniyin Selvan 1 (PS1)
Last week, my Dad asked me to check if the newly released Ponniyin Selvan 1 (PS1) movie is playing at the theatre near our home. My Dad never is the type who goes out to watch movies so this request was something I could n-ot ignore. I know that to my Dad “Ponniyin Selvan” is a beloved classic as that tamil master classic novel is always in my Dad’s room, it’s part of his book collection.
I saw Ponniyin Selvan movie release news treading also on twitter a day or two back, so I was aware that this movie made on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s 1950’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ novel was out on theatres but I was not keen to go to the theatre and watch (for me crypto and cat entertainment is generally more than sufficient.).
Yet, as a tamilian somewhere I had the urge to watch this movie. Even if I am not literate in tamil, I can speak simple tamil and I enjoyed a drama adaptation of Ponniyin Selvan done by a theatre group years ago. This was even though the tamil spoken there was sen tamil which is an ancient breed of tamil touge probably spoken long ago in days of Cholan kings and queens. (Ha…ha… ancient times when the world was so different and all…)
Anyway, it turned out that the Ponniyin Selvan 1(PS1) movie was playing in the theatre near home, so Dad said let’s watch the movie sometime next week…
Movie’s trailer revealed that on the visual effects front the movie scored excellently!!
Meanwhile, I saw this brief trailer of the movie which conveyed to me that the visual effects in the movie are grand, apart from the movie being action packed!!
Another reason to watch the movie was that it was directed by Mani Ratnam, so it’s bound to be a good quality movie.
Generally, I am very much a book person and stories that I adore like JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, (LOTR, my literary bible) have not been brought out well in movies (at least Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings version) so I was not sure about this movie bringing out the story and characters of the Kalki Krishnamurthy’s epic novel ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ alive nicely. Still, as I have not read that novel, that won’t matter to me. Shrugs…
This Thursday, me and my Dad went to watch ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. I was very doubtful whether I would be able to be seated for close to 3 hours watching the film but it turned out that the PS1 movie was so entertaining that I was engrossed watching it throughout.
A bit about the general story of Ponniyin Selvan
Unfortunately, I missed the opening 8 minutes of the movie, so I missed the brilliant narration voiced by Kamala Hassan and one war scene in the movie.
The movie depicts the Chola dynasty in 10th century India when ‘Sundara Chola’ played by ‘Prakash Raj’ is the king. However, after his time even though his family wanted one of his sons to be the king, there were groups inside the Royal circle(ministers and other staff members) plotting to place ‘Madurantaka Chola’ played by Rahman on the throne.
The story revolves on the family of ‘Sundara Chola’ — daughter princess ‘Kundavai’ played by Trisha, sons prince ‘Aditya Karikalan’ played by Vikram and price ‘Arulmozhi Varma ‘ played by Jayam Ravi wanting to keep the Chola kingdom intact knowing that there are forces at play to unsettle the Chola Kingdom.
‘Arulmozhi Varma’ is Ponniyin Selvam after whom the title of the novel and so the movie is named.
Other main charactors in the plot of the movie are ‘Nandini’ played by Aishwarya Rai, ‘Periya Pazhuvettarayar’ played by R Sharath Kumar, ‘Chinna Pazhuvettaraiya’ played by R Parthibam. These are the main characters leading the forces at play to unsettle the Chola Kingdom by not having any of Sundara Chola’s sons on the throne.
A must mention is the naughty, witty and daring Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan played by ‘Karthi’, a spy close to ‘Sundara Chola’ sons being chased around in the movie by enemies, although he fools them all.
The General flavour of the PS1 movie — My Review
There’s adventure, comedy and a lot of the fantastic with palaces, castles, oceans, ships, and comet creating absolutely grand scenes… watch PS1’s more in depth trailer to understand what I mean by “fantastic” —
Inbetween, musical dance performances add depth to the story. It’s good that the movie has subtitles because the tamil spoken there is not simple tamil we speak but sen tamil that was spoken in ancient days.
Musical themes add richness to the story with charming flavour of beautiful prose fitted into scenes to enchant us!!
Fun character taking us on an adventure — Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan
Most of the movie we have Character Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan played by Karthi running around delivering messages and being chased by the charactors he tricked . He is an absolutely fun character in the movie.
Plenty of powerful, beautiful women in the story
The allure of strong women is plenty in the movie with main characters of Ponniyin Selvan, Nandini and Kundavai played by Aishwaya Rai and Trisha. I can imagine these women to be really beautiful and mesmerising in the novel and our Vandiyadevan charmingly puts forth witty graceful appreciations conversing with these women, flirting with them, ha…naughty, but enough to make those ladies smile.
Some ladies in action mode in PS1 movie
Speaking of ladies, this novel has women in action, sailing ships across mighty oceans with Poonguzhali being Samudra Kumari played by Aishwarya Lakshmi, taking male customers across oceans from Indian to Srilanka. How cool!!
We have another women character whose identity is a mystery, in part one of Ponniyin Selvam saving our Prince Arulmozhi Varma from danger along with her elephant, who does all that fighting!!
Themes echoed in the movie Ponniyin Selvam (PS1)
Theme of brotherhood and friendship, bravery finds some portrayal in the film while theme of treachery, romance, loyalty, vengeance finds abundant flavour in the film.
Amazing battle scenes, entertaining sword fights but I don’t think there’s unnecessary bloodshed in the movie, but yes there are ruthless killings, slashing of people as happens in war with some bloodshed but it’s not violent. It’s all done elegantly and decent.
It’s always nice to watch noble animals like well decked elephants and horses playing a brave role in the film.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the visuals in the scenes, the portrayal of the characters and their background stories, comedy and action in the movie . There’s music and songs in between adding more meaning and context to the story giving it depth.
Something that cannot be missed is the glamour in the movie -*** it’s grandiose from the jewels and costumes worn by the characters.***
Ponniyin Selvam is definitely a historical movie depicting grand settings that’s a treat to watch. Imagine you have a dream dressed like the prince, riding a noble war horse with a grand sword with rich engraving and then entering a grand castle to get welcomed by hospitable lovely court ladies in this grand castle that has secret passages and all!!! …
You get it, the movie pictures a mythical era so charmingly that it’s enchanting and out of this ordinary, mundane and useless world!!
All in all, a quality film to spend close to 3 hours of your time to watch!!!
Part 1 of the movie Ponniyin Selvan was released this year, next year by this time we will have Part 2 of Ponniyin Selvan to watch.
