Why Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan: 1’ doesn’t disappoint fans of Kalki’s novel

For the ardent fans of Kalki ponniyin selvanMani Ratnam PS: 1 Begins with a tone of despair.

The opening scene is not Vanthiyathevan riding on a horse, looking at the Veeranam Pond which looks like the sea. Instead, the film opens with Aditha Karikalan at war. But don’t be discouraged, as the film, on the whole, remains majorly true to the fictional history written and circulated in Kalki Patrika by Kalki Krishnamurthy in the 1950s.

While the book begins and ends with Vanthiyathevan walking through the story, the film’s spotlight is on the two Chola princes. It begins with Adhitha Karikalan, and after an interval, it begins again with Arulmozhi Varman in battle.

There’s definitely a grandeur to the film as opposed to the book. which came through two stories; One detectives in love with a beautiful and intelligent Chola princess (Kundavai), and the other the vengeful and bloody romance of a Chola prince (Aditha Karikalan) with his young lover Nandini, from whom he was separated too early. Empire.

Another lackluster is the introduction of Poonguzhali, the young woman who often goes on a boat from Kodiakarai to Sri Lanka and rescues Arulmozhi Varman (who refers to her as the “daughter of the sea”). Sadly, Kodiyakarai and his ghosts have no place in the story of Mani Ratnam. Since it is a film, the director has chosen to introduce only the main characters. Though for book lovers, Poonguzhali holds a special place in their hearts.

On the morning of the film’s release, my dad told me, “The casting is good; Vikram Aditha as Karikalan, Karthi as Vanthiyathevan, Trisha as Kundvai, and Aishwarya as Nandini. Even Jayaram as Alvarkadian, Sarathkumar and Parthiban as Pajuvettarayar. Mani Ratnam has been spot-on. You need to appreciate the pain they would have taken to make the film. ,

He was absolutely right. In the film, Jairam and Karthi’s friendship and folly comes alive like a book. Vanthiyathevan’s first meeting with Nandini unfolds like a book; So there is a finely-tuned confrontation between Kundvai and Nandini.

But one character that doesn’t truly translate from the book to celluloid is Raja Sundar Cholar (Prakash Raj). The book describes him as “the most beautiful man in the world”. Kamal Haasan would have killed it. Also, in the novel he is mostly confined to his bed, sick, troubled, lonely and suffering from his sins, but the film fails to bring out his unbearable pain.

Mani RatnamHowever, through Sarathkumar, Periya portrays the pain of Pajuvettarayar, an old man and a veteran of many battles, who falls in love with a young woman (Nandini) to become the object of ridicule. The director captures a love-sick grand old man’s longing for his partner in a sensual and sensitive manner. As good as this book is.

The screenplay is tight, tied to the main story, and dialogues jump from pages to screen. Did we miss something in the movie? The early encounters between Vanthiyathevan and Kundavai at Kudanthai Josiyar’s house, or the instance when Vanthiyathevan “kills” a stuffed crocodile on the banks of a river, are not to be forgotten by lovers of the novel. While both the film and the book portray Vanthiyathevan as a flirt, the book clearly reveals his undying love and commitment to Kundavai. Film, not so much.

But has the film outpaced the book somewhere? Except perhaps a few close-up shots at the end of the film, brilliantly portrayed by Vikram in portraying Aditha Karikalan’s delusional love for Nandini.

Vikram as Aditha Karikalan in the film

Kalki’s ponniyin selvan It is part of the cherished, collective memory of millions of Tamils ​​in the post-independence era and hence no one, including MGR and Kamal Haasan, dared to film it. But Mani Ratnam need not panic, because PS:1 Fans of the book have not failed.

(This author read non-stop five volumes of Ponniyin Selvan as a 12-year-old in his aunt’s library during the summer of 1983)