PS 2

Hello all!

Sorry for keeping my page dormant for this long, but I did not feel like I saw or read or came across something which influenced or triggered me enough to write about it.

And then came Ponniyin Selvan 2 which absolutely made me feel like I should do something about it. Before you read, if have neither watched the movie nor read the book, lot of spoiler alerts ahead, sorry for that!

As someone who absolutely adores to read, I try my level best not to watch adaptations of books because I have been nothing but disappointed in them. I can understand that it is not practical to include everything said in the book in a movie because of its fixed and limited time frame. Moreover, movies do tend to limit your imagination as there’s not much left to perceive or sometimes interpret by ourselves.

Still, movie adaptations are good as not everyone has access to the books and reading may or may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

But, as someone living away from her country, as a measure to stick to my culture, the desperate yearning to hear someone talk in your mother tongue and the opportunity to meet my friends prompted me to go to the movie despite my extreme unwillingness to watch the first part even online.

Yet, upon listening to people say it was the best way for people who haven’t read the story to discover one of the timeless classics of Tamil literature, so I felt I shouldn’t be prejudiced and try to give the movie a chance ( as prejudiced and judgmental as I did feel, but chose not to reveal) I proceeded to travel 2+ hours just to reach the city where they screened the movie (First regret)

I had never been okay with the casting choice, and I don’t wish to go into the details.

But, even as someone who has read the whole series for 7-8 times, even I had problems understanding who was who and what exactly were they doing in the story. I can absolutely fathom the changes made to the subplot of who Madhurandhagan is, but how does Ponniyin Selvan actually justify a traitor who went over to the other side? The former is supposed to be controlled by people around him because he is quite unsure of his own worth from time to time. Then he becomes extremely ambitious and resorts to deception and treachery.

I could accept even that, that might have been a complex subplot to add ( for which they might have had time if they had avoided the unnecessary war scene with the Rashtrakutas, just saying), but what about Nandini? It’s her need to avenge herself and her mother which forms the basis of the story. Without her, the plot goes nowhere. She is the axis of the story. She only feels like murdering her past lover for leaving her and killing a man??? Where was the passion which Nandini had in the books? And she leaves without even asking for her husband’s pardon? Isn’t that one of the most heart rendering scenes in the book?

Why use actors like Prakash Raj for such short scenes in the screen? What was Oomai Rani doing but some acrobatics? What happened to Sentha Amuthan and Samuthra Kumari? Did the lovebirds Vanthiyathevan and Kunthavai get married?

My dear Mr. Mani Ratnam, I know it was your dream project and it took a lot of efforts to bring five volumes of the book on screen. It’s based on the book and not an exact adaptation, I get that too. Why did you have to pick out random scenes from the book and insert them in random places in the movie then? But in your futile attempt to make Ponniyin Selvan seem like the big hero he is, why make a fool of all the other characters? If you wanted to make them appear so worthy of worship, why didn’t you provide any of them with an awesome entrance as provided in the books? Why is there no justification of Madurandhagan actually being skilled in politics which actually justifies the end?

Just questions.

The only thing which I felt was okay with the movie was casting Chiyaan Vikram as Karikalan, he really brought his character and his slow descent into madness to life.

Looking forward to better movies in the future, because come on , we deserve better!!!!

Till we meet again,

A Random Indian Girl who is missing India a lot