Ponniyin Selvan Review!

While books and movies are different media — oranges to apples — the ultimate aim is to engage the reader or audience, and give them a unique experience.

Alfred Cuaron’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was truly a work of art that was equal to or even better than the book itself; no mean feat to pull a better one off J.K. No doubt in this avatar, the film becomes its own work of art — aligned to — but not encumbered by the book it is based on. Either in terms of plots, characterisations, tweaks varying the pacing, or backstories, there is an effort to ensure that the medium is exploited entirely by the message, and perhaps, vice versa. That’s what film makers and even authors aim at, ultimately; dropping a hook to draw their audience in, holding them in awe or enchantment, rapture or shock, and allowing them to feel the catharsis that art offers. and if you are not happy, there is always the book to go back home to. Not that the kernel of film — as a medium by itself — does not hold within it immense possibilities; particularly of spectacle, offering the ability to see, rather than just imagine, it does. While a couple of attempts were made in the past to render the epic on screen — [notably by MGR](https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/mgr-wanted-to-make-ponniyin-selvan-with-kamal-haasan-and-sridevi/article30673309.ece) — none worked out until [Mani Ratnam picked up the gauntlet](https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/ponniyin-selvan-audio-launch-rajinikanth-and-kamal-haasans-camaraderie-steals-the-show/article65860770.ece). [the author’s seductive narrative style](https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/the-real-and-fiction-in-ponniyin-selvan/article65838424.ece), the cliffhangers, the twists in plot, and the intrigue served perfectly to whet the appetite of its first readers. After all, as Paulo Coelho said, “ A book is a movie running in the mind of the reader”. What a movie does is to flesh that out without leaving much to the imagination, readers find. That happens to be just what Mani Ratnam is recommending too. The novel dwells extensively on the conspiracy to assassinate the crown princes of Sundara Cholan, the events that followed, and the eventual succession of the second son Arulmozhi Varman, who was to achieve everlasting fame as Raja Raja Chola 1.

The movie Ponniyin Selvan, starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Sobhita Dhulipala, Traish, and others in a key role under the direction of Mani Ratnam, is ...

Aishwarya, who is close to Mani Ratnam, appreciates the opportunity to star in this movie. Additionally, it happens frequently that movie critics have access to the movies a day or two before they are released. Overall, a decent historical saga with surprising turns and moments that merit applause."