Movie Review: Ponniyin Selvan Part 1

A movie 70 years in the making they say. Many tried. Many failed. But Mani succeeded. After a few attempts at least. 

I'll start by saying, no, I have NOT read the book. But I've heard numerous people talk about it. Describe parts of it. Praise the creativity of the author. And listened to about 20 mins of a 1.5 hr summarised version of the books. 

#PonniyinsSelvan The Movie is Mani Ratnam's version of Kalki's book. Don't expect a word to word representation of the book. That being said, the movie is MASSIVE!

Casting is perfect. The list is too long to describe one by one. But everyone is on their A game. From the smallest character to the largest. Karthi plays his role well. Aish, Trisha, Vikram just take over the moment. That meeting scene of the two female leads is beautifully shot making the viewers try to decide who is going to win the contest.

Ravi Varman's camera work is stunning capturing the beauty of the Chola Kingdom and the other locations as well as the characters. The colour palette just fits every scene of the movie. And Sreekar Prasad's editing has complimented the camera work very well.

Thota Tharani's set work easily beats the VFX work done for sets in Bahubali. Only one place I feel the makers went wrong in terms of set which I will mention later. Apart from that, the attention to detail and the quality of work is crazy good. 

The action sequences and the dance choreography is top notch. The picturization of the "Ratchasa Mamane" song was the highlight for me. The at sea battle was also done very well. 

And being true to his guru, A.R.Rahman has given his best work for Mani Ratnam as always. The songs seemed ok when released but in true ARR style, it's slow poison. Grows on you and then when you see it with the visuals, it's just next level. And the BGM, the multiple versions of Ponni Nadhi, Alaikadal, Devaralam Aatam (the Monkey Chant) help connect the multiple numbers of characters throughout the story. 

And finally, direction. Mani Ratnam after a few not so great outings has come out strong and has put his mark again on Indian cinema to say he is the best. He has done the balancing act of giving the right amount of time to each actor, keeping the suspense and ensuring even for those of us who haven't read the book understand the characters quickly and are able to follow them. 

The two major flaws in the movie are, one, the VFX, in certain scenes only which are most of the time not noticeable thanks to the art director and the cinematographer's work. The other are the portions about Sri Lanka. If they had shot the scenes in SL, that would have been perfect. But since they shot them in Thailand, the temples and the buddhism shown in the movie are heavily Thai influenced. That could have been avoided. 

Overall, an enjoyable movie. And a must watch if you are a tamil movie fan. 

My rating: 4/5

#PS1 #PonniyinSelvan1