It’s definitely not an easy task to film a historical movie, and when adapting a famous historical fiction novel this task becomes risky, tricky, and tough. As you need to satisfy a huge crowd who is well aware of the novel. It was a dream for many directors to adapt Kalki’s novel Ponniyin Selvan into a movie. Now Maniratnam who had been waiting for several years to make this epic tale has finally come out with Ponniyin Selvan Part 1. I would say that Maniratnam has ensured that nothing has been compromised here and the movie was just like reading a novel page by page. With Jayamohan and Ilango Kumaravel as the writers, Maniratnam has delivered the best product to us. Produced by Lyca Productions, here are my views about the film.
Performance :
1. Karthi – Credits for the first part goes to Karthi, he has given a career-best performance with his lively acting. He looks charming and blends well into the character. We cannot think of anyone else playing the role of Vallavarayan Vanthiyathevan better than him.
2. Jayam Ravi – He plays the Arunmozhi Varman. We get to see him only in the second half and he scores well as he gets enough screen time. The combat scene with Karthi is worth mentioning, also the climax fight sequences stay in our minds for a long time.
3. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – She plays the role of Nandhini and the scenes involving her are well written. She nails the character with her expression and gives us a lasting impression.
4. Trisha – Trisha as Kundavai looks beautiful and gets to play a meaty role.
5. Vikram – He plays the role of Aditha Karikalan, though he doesn’t have a lot of screen time he ensured to give a standout performance in the given time.
6. Jayaram – He gets to play the role of Nambi and his portions with Karthi evolves some light-hearted moment in the epic drama.
7. Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Vikram Prabhu, Sarathkumar, Parthiban, Prakash Raj, Lal, Prabhu, Ashwin Kakumanu, Nishalgal Ravi, Nassar, and Rahman among others have done their parts well.
What’s Good?
1. The cast of this movie is a major plus. Maniratnam has ensured that he has assembled the perfect team for this epic tale.
2. The portion where Nandini and Kundavai come face to face for the first time is one of the best scenes.
3. Ravi Varman’s Cinematography is excellent and is one of the major pillars of this movie. This is definitely a visual treat for the audience.
4. AR Rahman’s music elevates the scenes and adds value to the visuals.
5. No compromises were made with Kalki’s novel. That’s the strength of this movie too.
What didn’t work?
1. The action sequence could have been choreographed even better, especially in the climax portion.
2. VFX could have been better. For a movie like this, the team could have invested more time in it.
3. There was no balance in the first and second half. The first half had little action and more dialogues but the second half had more action.
Maniratnam has ensured that he retains the novel’s flavor in the movie and that’s the strength of Ponniyin Selvan: I. A sure-shot winner!
Ponniyin Selvan Review By Vidya Chandrababu
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