‘Ponniyin Selvan: I’ movie review – A visual spectacle with the trademark Mani Ratnam flare
Ponniyin Selvan: I
Tamil (Theatres)
Director: Mani Ratnam
Forged: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Karthi, Jayam Ravi
Score: 3.5/5
How do you soar on the bandwagon but stay distinctive? Ask Mani Ratnam. Huge-budgeted interval dramas for a pan-India market is a development exhausting to withstand at the moment and it was excessive time one among India’s best filmmakers explored it.
Ratnam’s retelling of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s historic fiction Ponniyin Selvan is mounted on an enormous scale like many films within the class. However Ratnam makes the primary installment of the two-part undertaking his personal by means of his trademark engrossing drama.
Ratnam had advised up to date tales tailored from epics Mahabarata (‘Thalapathi’) and Ramayana (‘Ravanan’). This time, the problem was totally different, as he was translating an enormous (five-part) novel on display. There have been talks about how a director, so well-liked for individualistic model, put his stamp on an adaptation that needed to be trustworthy. He wasn’t additionally aware of making grand spectacles. However Ratnam is aware of a factor or two about shutting out the noise and taking courageous steps.
For these not conscious of the story, Ponniyin Selvan is about energy wrestle. Prince Aditha Karikalan (Vikram) sends his pal Vandhiyathevan (Karthi) to emperor Sundara Cholar (Prakash Raj) in Thanjavur with a message that the dominion is at risk. Princess Kunthavai (Trisha) in flip provides Vandhiyathevan the duty of bringing again her brother Ponniyin Selvan (Jayam Ravi) from Sri Lanka to cease the schemers from aiming for the throne. Parallel to this central plot, the Pandya dynasty is planning to eradicate Ponniyin Selvan to avenge their large loss.
It is a dense story with pleasant twists. Ratnam, who has co-written the screenplay with Jeyamohan and Elango Kumaravel, has discovered a option to point out vital trivia within the near-three hour movie. Jeyamohan’s dialogues have a contact of colloquial flavour, making them simple to grasp for the present era.
The writers’ efforts are enhanced by a terrific forged, led by Karthi. The actor’s flirty, full-of-life, and witty portrayal is the movie’s soul. Vikram, essaying Ponniyin Selvan’s brother Aditha Karikalan, is terrific as a loser, perennially harm by the heart-break brought on by his childhood love Nandhini (Aishwarya Rai). Aishwarya, beautiful as ever in look, is convincing as a shrewd, seductive queen hatching a plan to kill Karikalan. Trisha elevates her assured, beautiful presence with a managed efficiency.
Ravi Varman’s wealthy frames and veteran Thotta Tharani’s monumental manufacturing design takes Ratnam’s imaginative and prescient a number of notches greater. However A R Rahman takes the cake as he finds an ideal steadiness in rousing and poignant background scores.
The movie begins off in a quite boring method. It struggles to search out the rhythm as a bunch of characters are launched in fast succession. The struggle sequences aren’t cheesy however they are not extraordinary both.
That mentioned, Ponniyin Selvan is a winner as a result of Ratnam reveals a brand new option to make epic movies.
