Ponniyin Selvan

 I was super excited to watch this movie during opening weekend but couldn't get tickets on the desired theatre I wanted to watch hence waited for some time. Though was just a call away from getting tickets I don't want to obligate my friends every single time when a new big movie releases. Then once I was able to get tickets I couldn't get tickets on the type of seats I wanted to watch - balcony, center row seating and it was like as soon as seats show up in internet someone booked the entire row. I still had to wait and finally second weekend booked tickets but then my nose was like Ponni nadhi and even cetrizine couldn't rescue me hence had to skip watching the movie. Finally third weekend booked my tickets and finally watched the movie. If I cannot have patience to wait for 14 days I can imagine amount of patience or should say perseverance for Mani Ratnam to wait for 40 long years to make his dream come true on his dream project. I deliberately did not attempt reading the novel nor listening to audiobooks because I want to go with clean slate and not influence my background on the story have a saying in my liking towards the movie. 

I plan to do a complete post mortem of the movie going over the movie in detail. First let me go over a short narrative.

Farmer and Neem tree as a narrative: Once upon a time a farmer called Govindasamy lived in a small village and cultivated crops on his native land. He gets up early in the morning and starts watering his crops followed by applying natural fertilizers. Then he ploughs the land using a tractor and then his loving wife helps him in cutting the weeds and pests control. His children at times comes and plays in the farm and family is contented with the way they lead life. Family always rests under the neem tree and either having food or taking a nap always happen under the neem tree. 

Now if you read a narrative you imagine characters and incidents on your mind and depending on the author on how he establishes the characters it gets into a new world of imagination for every reader. Novels are like slow poison and it takes ample time to establish each character and once author hooks you onto the characters then story revolves around the characters. Ponniyin selvan is five volumes book spanning close to 2000 pages. Story has been widely read by public and it has reached people across all walks of life. Now imagine taking the same narrative through mainframe cinema 

Farmer and Neem tree as mainframe cinema: Beautiful sunrise happen and farmer with folded hands hum a song and enter into the field. Rain comes and he is overjoyed and thanks nature for all its help and then one fine day while applying natural fertilizers realizes his crops have been affected by pests. Not knowing what to do asks help from his wife who agrees to mortgage her jewels in order to save crops from further damage. Family always eat, sleep and play under neem tree and one fine day snake bites farmer's son and farmer is put into lot of pressure both on professional and personal front. How farmer recovers from this situation forms rest of the story. 

As you can see in mainframe cinema you have the ability to tweak things as per your wish but it is important to retain true essence of the story. So biggest challenge for Mani Ratnam must have been on how to adapt a novel into mainframe cinema retaining the true essence of the story as well as adding fictional elements and dramatical moments to cater to normal audience. For example climax fight would have been very average if the fight took place in land but drama was added by having rain, thunderstorms to make it bit cinematic. Devarattam must have been a dance form in the past era but that has to be communicated to modern day audience through a song choreographed. 

Ponniyin selvan story is 70 years old and stalwarts like MGR, Sivaji, Kamal, Rajini attempted but couldn't make it. There were multiple challenges like huge budget requirements, big star cast and making of two parts. Mani Ratnam said in one of the interviews that this was his dream project and he has to wait as many as forty years for making his dream come true. Remember Mani Ratnam is a heart patient and people tend to take things easy once heart diseases scare you. Corona was a major roadblock hampering the shooting schedule. People working with PPE kits and N95 masks just shows the passion they have towards art. During 2020, vaccines were not readily available for citizens and to shoot during this period considering how Corona shook the entire world shows the character and commitment people had towards this project. Multi star cast in Tamil Cinema is like serving sambar vada in muniyandi vilas ...simply not possible 

In Trichy there is a sentiment - anything with the name Kaveri will be a sensational hit, be it school, college, hospital, supermarket everything is doing extremely well. Ponniyin selvan is doing tremendous box office collections and making small kids and all the way upto elders at home to visit nearest theatre. Photography and art direction were simply outstanding, and this should be one of AR Rahman's best work. At times I felt music was bit contemporary but then music when faceoff between Trisha and Aishwarya happens was too good. Beauty with brains holds good for both Trisha and Aishwarya as they both got meaty roles. Dialogues were good and rather than taking us to ancient language the one used in the movie helped people to understand. I heard it took one year to come up with the screenplay of the movie and great job by the dialogue writers. I was happy VFX works were limited since story is not a fictional one. 

I have never seen Mani Ratnam market his movie this much as he has always maintained low profile towards movie's promotion. But this movie marketing done through cast of the movie were bit overwhelming but it paid rich dividends. Good movies has to be appreciated and hats off to Mani Ratnam for a wonderful movie. I knew before its release that it will be compared to Bahubali ..this is sick attitude from audience, Bahubali is more of fictional story and had many larger than life scenes but PS is based on a true story with some fiction around it. One need not degrade one film in order to appreciate other instead both movies are good in their own way. Bahubali has to be given credits because it let directors know that even with period film one can make commercial blockbusters.  PS has given new lease of life to Tamil industry and soon we may see many novels coming as mainframe cinema and one who adapts it well will be successful. So finally writers will get due respect augurs well for writing community and will not be surprised if novels like Partiban kanavu, Sivagamiyin sabatham turn into movies pretty soon. 

Next blog: Iraivanin Padaipu