An edited version of this review appeared in Page 8 of Tabla 12th May 2023 edition.
Also, a Tamil review of PS-2 can be found here...
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Roughly at about the halfway mark of Ponniyin Selvan – 2 (PS-2), there comes a scene where Mandakini (played by Aishwarya Rai) reaches the royal quarters of Sundara Chozhan (Prakash Raj). The king, in broad daylight, is sleeping, oblivious to the dangers that he is facing. The lady jumps in and saves his life in the nick of time, and in the process, loses hers. The song that follows lamenting her death is from the great Tamil literature Purananooru, about how no one in the country used fragrant flowers after the death of their beloved king. Mani Ratnam brings out the irony of a tired, sick king being saved by a brave, deaf-mute woman who he had jilted in the past.
The power of PS-2 is in such moments that are spread across the 2:45 hours of delightful presentation. When Ponniyin Selvan – 1 (PS-1) hit the screens about seven months ago, the excitement was palpable. On the contrary, the promotions for PS-2 were muted, to say the least. Except for the songs that stormed the charts (Veera Raja Veera, Aga Naga, Adi Sankara’s Nirvana Shatakam, Thiruppavai were impressive), there wasn’t anything huge going on.
One even thought that the team did not care too much to carpet bomb the media with advertisements. In hindsight, they were perhaps confident with the quality of the product that they had produced. 😊
Yes, PS-2 is a fitting conclusion to this attempt at bringing the much-loved novel to the screen. Indeed, the fanatical following that the book has created may not approve of the several artistic licenses that Mani Ratnam has taken, but the adaptations were seamless, mostly.
Picking up from where PS-1 left, when Arunmozhi Varman aka Ponniyin Selvan (Jayam Ravi) is lost in the sea along with his lieutenant Vanthiyanthevan (Karthi), PS-2 dives headlong into the political intrigue that surrounded the Chola empire a thousand years ago. The internecine squabbles among the members of the family threaten to tear them apart and cause irreparable damage to their relationships, aided in no small amount by the scheming Nandini (Aishwarya Rai), who has her reasons for seeing the downfall of the Chozha empire. One of the reasons is her unfulfilled love with the crown prince Aditha Karikalan (Vikram), an impulsive, repentant warrior-par-excellence, which turned to hatred beyond redemption due to what he did to Veera Pandiyan (Nasser).
How the knots are unknotted, and how the squabbles are resolved, and how the enemies are won over, form 99% of the movie. And as in Kalki’s written work, the last 1% was the twist, a-la last-ball six to win the game! Well, here the twist is not as per what Kalki wrote and left a bit undercooked as the buildup to that climax was incomplete. To that extent, it was more a boundary to tie the game than winning it completely.
Having said that, the movie was a full paisa-vasool, as they say in India. Unlike PS-1, where the premise had to be set, Mani has the freedom to set the pace and bring in scenes of import at will. Apart from the Mandakini scene mentioned earlier, a few others stuck in one’s mind…
- Where a blindfolded Vanthiyathevan meets Kundavai (Trisha), and they profess love to each other with the song Aga Naga lilting in the background. The cave where they meet even resonates with Vanthiyathevan’s position, who has such a small land to rule and has his world, Kundavai, in there to make him happy.
- Where
a seething Aditha Karikalan reaches Kadamboor and confronts the conspirators
atop his white steed, displaying power and authority to no end.
- Where a smoldering and red-hot Nandini meets Aditha Karikalan for their final showdown. The tension in that scene could have been cut with the sword that Nandini held 😊
- Where
the brotherhood of Buddhist monks crowds out the killers disguised as monks
while chanting the mantras, making them drop the knives not by physical force
but through forceful love.
- Where
Vanthiyathevan, accused of a dastardly crime, appears in front of the King and
pleads for punishment for dereliction of duty.
Of course, Mani
Ratnam resorts to some throwbacks to his own movies: Sundara Chozhan,
remorseful over his love affair, does an Iruvar reprise; the
boat-ramming scene from Raavanan, etc. 😉
The battle
scene at the end was force-fitted and probably needed cinematically. After
watching some of the other war scenes (that Baahubali again!), there was
nothing much to write home about, except that this one had less CGI, if that
helps! The screenplay was a bit rushed, with one incident following another,
though sound. Of course, as in PS-1, the flow was marred by poor dialogues. And
in the interest of changing the ending, some of the key characters from the
book were delegated to the margins.
Although it has its flaws, PS-2 is a deserving and commendable sequel to PS-1, creating a cinematic achievement that will be a landmark in Tamil cinema. Despite its imperfections, the two films' enduring legacy will be to make the reels-happy youth and old alike of today turn their attention to the rich history of Tamil people and India as a whole.
