Movie Review – Ponniyin Selvan: I

A non-gimmicky, classy period flick which makes us enjoy the film like a book reading session.

Finally the dream for so many filmmakers across generations has been made true by a filmmaker who has been considered as one of the India’s finest. But what makes the film special was the treatment by Mani Ratnam. For a film which has been a dream for many directors, Mani Ratnam’s version was a crisp, condensed and sincere adaptation of the book, which in fact makes us forget about the book while watching the film. That’s the biggest plus of the movie because it doesn’t come out as a loaded barrel of pent up emotions but straightforward polished film. Mani Ratnam shows what a great director he is my keeping his self-indulgence in check and making the most Non Mani-ish film which shows his respect to the subject and sophistication to the direction.

Aditya Karikalan (Vikram) comes out of smoke in the very first scene along with Vallavaraiyan Vanthiyathevan (Karthi) and that’s about the only massest unnecessary scene in the whole film. Otherwise it just talks about the characters. The film appears to be made in such a way that you’re present at the situation, witnessing the glory, heartbreak etc. but feeling sad inside about so many misdeeds. It’s kind of being in the midst of chaotic family like Chekka Chivantha Vaanam but it’s an emotion which didn’t work there but worked here.

Ideally Karikalan should’ve appeared only around the second half or even may be the second film and should’ve erupted the whole crowd but was handled differently by Mani. In fact it was curious and discerning to an extent to think whether Mani Ratnam has become a fan of Vikram and that’s why there were so many close ups and long shots. The emotion was similar to ‘Ravanan’ but here it doesn’t work. In fact Vikram appears to be the only person whose character who was not well written. He hardy gets any screen space but doesn’t get to hold fort even in that. It could have been easily glorified but Mani Ratnam chooses not to. Vikram’s character was the slight spike in the graph on an otherwise constant tempo movie.

The movies charm was Karthi, what an actor, Mani Ratnam has got the pulse of audience with Vanthiyathevan character. Karthi does it superbly and shares a great rapport with Azhwarkadiyan Nambi (Jayaram), just like the book. Probably the only character which got me reminded of the book. Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar (R. Sarathkumar) comes down as a morose man but doesn’t incur the fear which comes across in the book whereas Chinna Pazhuvettaraiyar’s (R. Parthiban) character was superbly written. Easily the most menacing character in the movie. There wasn’t much built up for Arulmozhi Varman aka Ponniyin Selvan (Jayam Ravi) but as a gentle skillful king he was perfect.

The real fire power of the movie was the two ladies, Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) and Kundavai. (Trisha) How brilliantly was the clash of egos between the ladies handled. Aishwarya looked effervescent as Nandini and her scenes were superbly lit by Mani Ratnam to give a feel of her powers of beauty. She truly gets a demigoddess status whenever she acts in a Tamil film. Trisha on the other hand was surprisingly good with her cunningness and looked dashingly beautiful too. The scene where she waits an extra second to make Nandini come down the steps to greet her, inspite of being instructed by Periya Pazuvettaraiyar not to, was the only cinematic scene of the whole movie I believe but that was superbly done.

For a movie which could have been done in any way, Mani Ratnam choses to keep sincerity and exposition at front and carefully reveals the character. When all were of the opinion that it was going to go slam bang in the ‘Bahubali’ way, this was a film of a marked craftsman, someone who knows his art and not influenced by any other. This shows why Mani Ratnam is called a great director. I guess the film would go the ‘Vikram’ way were people would fear to call it a bad film even though they didn’t like it. May be the culture proudness is going to make the film a hit, even if not being entirely liked by a section of audience.

For a film of this scale, wish it had more grandeur and better music. The production values was really average. Expect for the climax sequence with the ship, the canvas was not big and awe inspiring. Thanks to the exposure to all the Hollywood series, this effort looks meek and the music too was average. Mani seriously misses Vairamuthu and his wordplay in the songs. Even the whole Tamil flavor in the movie was pretty normal for a historic movie. In all the movie was a surprise package and for the lack of better word is a proper film.