Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Jayam Ravi, Karthi
Director: Mani Ratnam
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Shrinking a complicated five-extent novel right into a two-component film is suggest feat. It takes gumption. A good deal of it. If any director has that characteristic withinside the needful measure, it’s miles Mani Ratnam. Ponniyin Selvan – Part 1, a length epic this is considerable in scale and sundry in visible scope, is proof. The sprawling, spectacularly set up movie is an ambitious, near-wonderful edition of a lots-cherished literary paintings that demonstrates precisely why it’s been a film undertaking so daunting that the likes of M.G. Ramachandran and Kamalahasan should most effective make abortive tries at placing it together. Needless to say, the story makes big technical and inventive needs on Ratnam and his forged and crew. They show identical to the laborious venture of achieving the magnitude, the pacing and the stylistic thrives that the tale needs and to be had image-making generation allows. That sincerely does now no longer suggest that the veteran director surrenders himself lock, inventory and barrel to the trap and energy of computer-generated imagery. Ratnam is simply too excellent a craftsman and storyteller to over-rely upon the razzle-dazzle of the type of unbridled visible consequences which have pushed latest Indian blockbusters which include Baahubali, RRR and KGF. Ratnam does now no longer hotel to sensory or visceral overdrive, drawing power alternatively from the clever script written via way of means of him, B. Jeyamohan and Elango Kumaravel and from a forged of actors on the pinnacle in their game. PS-1 is a deal with for the eyes as lots as it’s miles for the mind. He abjures VFX excesses and grounds the historic fiction in a practical area to reap the intention of taking pictures the big sweep of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s cult 1955 novel that strains the generation of the Cholas.
It has taken six and a 1/2 of a long time for the tale to make it to the huge screen. The wait has been really well worth it. The Tamil-language PS-1 has variations dubbed in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam jogging in theatres nationwide. In the 167-minute Ponniyin Selvan – Part 1, a few passages appear a tad rushed due to the fact the advent of a panoply of characters and the exposition of traditionally dense info ought to be crunched into more than one three-hour films. Editor A. Sreekar Prasad, whose oft-verified abilities are examined to the severest, guarantees that the tale has simply sufficient respiratory areas for it now no longer to keel over into occasional incomprehensibility. Once the prelude is out of the manner and all of the primary characters had been covered up, PS-1 receives into the swing of things. It provides a phenomenally clean experience via an interesting collection of events – fierce battles, palace intrigue, misplaced love, vanquished infantrymen searching for revenge, courageous resistance – that information the excessive factors of Chola records in a way this is each tangible and texturally immersive.
The maximum noteworthy factor of PS-1, except the always dazzling performances via way of means of a solid led via way of means of Vikram and brilliantly propped up via way of means of Karthi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi and Trisha, amongst others, is the manufacturing layout via way of means of Thotta Tharini and the well-taken into consideration preference of places lensed brilliantly via way of means of cinematographer Ravi Varman. The tale unfolds in areas which can be eye-popping with out being fantastical withinside the manner that settings of ancient epics of this nature typically have a tendency to be. PS-1 invokes the spatial attributes of the 10th century to perfection – be they systems product of stone, interiors of forts and palaces or ships and boats out at sea. But at no factor do the pix appear to be they were crafted at the computer. PS-1 is a marvellously tactile movie that remains rooted in a selected duration while not having to create improbable, cardboard cut-out units suspended someplace among a puerile expertise of layout and a puerile imagination. Similarly, the movie’s dramatis personae – the sick Emperor Sundar Chola (Prakash Raj) and his 3 offspring, Crown Prince Aditha Karikalan (Vikram), his more youthful brother Arulmozhi Varman (Jayam Ravi, who seems overdue withinside the movie withinside the guise of the titular character) and sister Kundhavai (Trisha), and their aides and adversaries inside and with out the nation – are by no means much less than human. They address palpable feelings whilst they grapple with demanding situations of grand proportions. The characters, be they Chola royalty or guys of not unusualplace stock, sound plausible even if they’re in declamatory mode, shifting seamlessly from unusual understanding to chatty banter. With the air of outright make-accept as true with masterfully reined in, PS-1 is a ancient saga that attracts the target target market in with out resorting to the conjurer’s art. Its magic lies basically in its layered cinematic qualities. Mischief is afoot withinside the increasing Chola empire with Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), spouse of the scheming finance minister Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar (R. Sharathkumar), having vowed to wreck the nation. She holds a private grudge in opposition to her one-time lover Aditha Karikalan. The conspiracy, of which the finance minister’s brother and the Tanjore Fort’s in-rate Chinna Pazhuvettaraiyar (Radhakrishnan Parthiban) and a bunch of royal chieftains are a part, is aimed toward overthrowing Sundar Chola and setting his nephew Madurantaka (Rahman) at the throne. Sensing the grave hazard that lies ahead, Aditha Karikalan sends his exceptional buddy and relied on aide Vandhiyathevan (Karthi, who steals nearly the whole first 1/2 of of the movie way to the character’s present of the gab and amorous antics) with a message for Emperor Sundar Chola. The brave and pleased Vandhiyathevan dodges factors withinside the courtroom docket of the king in addition to of survivors from a defeated Pandiyan military who’re out to avenge their slain king Veerapandyan. While power-hungry or jilted-in-love guys to a first-rate deal of the talking, PS-1 is actual to the supply cloth in that it accords identical importance to the ladies withinside the tale. Besides the beauteous and strong-willed Nandini, the hard and clear-headed Chola Princess Kundavai performs an essential position because the tale progresses. Kundavai isn’t always most effective despatched via way of means of her father to pacify her elder brother Aditha Karikalan, she additionally instructs Vandhiyethevan to journey to Sinhala nation with a message for her brother Arulmozhi. Two different ladies withinside the plot – Vaanathi (Sobhita Dhulipala), who desires of marrying Arulmozhi, and boatwoman Samuthirakumari (Aishwarya Lekshmi) – do now no longer have as tons to do on this a part of the magnum opus. More might be in save for them withinside the sequel.
Action-packed and eventful, the primary a part of the drama finally ends up at a factor of the tale that leaves many questions unresolved and factors to what ought to shape the middle of Ponniyin Selvan – Part 2, scheduled for launch in 2023. The movie unavoidably packs an excessive amount of into too little time however it in no way fails to appearance and sound – A.R. Rahman’s songs and history rating represent the spine of the sound design – like a meticulously conceived and accomplished paintings of cinema. PS-1 is each exhilarating and enriching. Another dose could be simply perfect.