An alluring ode to the epic
Even though together it has to be viewed as a single film, the part two of Ponniyin Selvan felt lot more grounded than Ponniyin Selvan: I as things felt in place. Except for the one badly staged climax fight, the film was perfect in its treatment. There wasn’t a single mass scene in an epic which people were trying to make for generations. Even though not the finest films of Mani Ratnam, he time and again shows what a matured director he is. The movie is so good that it makes us forget about the book and enjoy the film as a Mani Ratnam product.
Like I said before, there wasn’t a single adrenaline pumping scene. There could’ve been so many scenes which he could have made to make people jump with joy but he keeps it to absolutely minimal. Whatever minimal things it was, it was reserved for Ponniyin Selvan (Jayam Ravi). Lucky Jayam Ravi, who shines in the film quite surprisingly. And one of the few characters who get some screen space apart from Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan).
Ideally this film should have been a spin-off of Ponniyin Selvan with Nandini and Karikalan (Vikram) track, it in fact felt like it. Because the part two works pretty much like a love story, which Mani Ratnam is brilliant at. It’s not just the senior Nandini and Karikalan who make you glued to the screen but even their younger versions do a fabulous job. It takes great guts to start an epic film with so many heroes as a fairytale between two young adults. Seriously, Mani Ratnam deserves a bow.
Even though Nandini and Karikalan’s angle add great depth to the story and the entire film revolves around the plot. It’s Aishwarya’s show all the way. There were lot of people (North Indian’s) appreciating Vikram’s acting but mostly they’d not have seen a Ravanan or Pithamagan. This film is nothing in front of that and an ideal way to treat the character would’ve been to introduce around the interval of the first part and kill him in the climax, that’s how it happens in the book and it’s most impactful. Wonder why Vikram’s screen space was so elongated when realistically he doesn’t have fan following who’d make people come to theatre just because he’s in part two. As for the performance, even though the combination scenes with Aishwary was great, it was one of his weakest performances.
Probably the greatest scene of the book where Karikalan meets Pazhuvettarayar should have been lot more dynamic but here it falls flat because, right from the word go, Sarath Kumar doesn’t look like a menacing villain and doesn’t feel like a challenge at all to Vikram. Ideally Sarath Kumar should have been a ‘you know who’, who should have been called a Voldemort by Vikram, to the shock of everyone. People who had not read the book are never going to understand that scene now.
Unlike the first half, Vanthiyathevan (Karthi) doesn’t have much to do in the second part because the film is lot more focused and serious, thankfully so. Even though it’s a drama at the end of the day, at least a little bit effort could have been put in the action sequences, which were pretty bad. And if at all the idea is to make it an intense drama, why to have the needless climax war sequence, which spoilt everyone’s mood as it was not necessary and was not shot well too.
Ideally it’d have been perfect as a single film. Whether you make it as a two part film or five part film or a series, you still can’t take every little thing from the book. To even compare it that way is not right. It’d have been lovely if it had been in the tempo of a Thavamai Thavamirundhu and shot as a single film. There were easily few unnecessary scenes in first part and few scenes from second half too could’ve have been removed and made it into a film close to four hours. May be they wanted to cash in on the opportunity. Anyways at least we get to see this.
constantscribbles 