Ponniyin Selvan movie - Peek into Ancient India.

Why must you see Ponniyin Selvan movie?

Movies like - Last emperor, Crouching tiger hidden dragon, Cleopatra, Ben Hur, Troy, Gladiator, Last Samurai are not just movies. But time travel and a peek into ancient civilisations of China, Japan, Greece, Rome, Egypt etc.

I always wondered why India never produced a universally appealing global film depicting a slice of ancient Indian history. A period film, giving a peek into Indian history and culture of a different era.

Saw #PonniyinSelvan this weekend. This movie was long due. In fact almost 70 years, from when the great novelist Kalki Krishnamurthy wrote this between 1950 to 1954 in a Tamil weekly for 4 years every week, almost 200 articles on a novel. This was later published as a book in 5 volumes called Ponniyin Selvan (Son of Ponni or Cauvery river). Many tried to film this Novel including late CM MGR, Kamala Hassan and failed. At last we are seeing this book as a movie.

Caution: Long post. My ancestors are from Thanjavur. So I might be bit biased towards Tanjore and Cholas 😀

For the uninitiated, and my non-Tamil friends, why must you see the movie?

. It's a period film set in 900 AD, about THE CHOLA KINGDOM, One of Indias most powerful Kingdoms, which even many Indians are not fully aware.

. Cholas are among the longest ruling dynasties in the world, were in power for almost 1600 years from 300BC TO 1279AD. Sadly they are not as well known even in india. As a point of contrast the two other well known Indian dynasties, were Mauryan (300bc to 200ad ~500 years) and Moghul (1500ad to 1857ad ~300 years) ruled for lot lesser time.

. Cholas were one of the largest kingdoms in India, ruling from Bengal (pala) to Sri Lanka (Ezham), from Kerala to Kedah in Malaysia (Kadaram). At peak of thier power in 900 to 1100AD, even Sri Vijaya (Indonesia), Bali, Cambodia (Angor wat), Myanmar and some parts of Thailand were under Chola influence. You can see it in various Hindu and Buddhist temples from Borabudur to Bali. From Ramayana to Garuda. BTW Thai kings are still called King Rama. And Malaysian kings are called Raja Chulan (Raja Cholan) even today.

. Contrast with Mogul and Maurya dynasties, Cholas had both powerful Army AND Navy. Infact Cholas Naval power helped merchant ships safely trade goods on sea from Eastern coasts of China to Arabia and Rome. Cholas were the biggest Naval power in the world for 300 years 900ad to 1200ad.

. Both Maurayan maps and Mogul maps show, they could never conquer Tamil Nadu due to Muv vendars (three kings of Chera, Chola and Pandyas). See maps.

. The biggest temple structure in the world in 1010 ad, was the Brihadeeswarar Temple, aka, BIG TEMPLE in Thanjavur, thier capital. It's 217 feet tall, almost 20 stories high (assuming 10 feet for a storie). And on top of it, is a 80 tonne monolithic rock, which was transported using elephants and bullocks over a ramp, and the ramp started 6 kms away from temple

It's onething to build Burj khalifa, Empire state building or Eiffel tower in modern era using steel, diesel engines, quarries, cranes and electricity. It's another thing to do it in an Era when none of this was there, using just animal power and basic hand tools. The only comparion in medieval period of such tall structure would be leaning tower of Pisa, 57m completed in 1372. The cholas built almost 4 times taller structure in 1010ad, 350 years back. And The big temple is standing tall and survived 8 major earthquakes in 1000 years and it did not lean like Pisa tower. And this temple had over 1000 sculptures!!

. Do you know the Dam built by Karikala chola, Kallanai, or grand Anicut dam is 2000 years old and still being used. It's only one among the 4 oldest dams in the whole world still being used.

. Do you know, Tamil Chola King Ellalan (Manu Needhi Cholan), statue is in Chennai high Court? Why? His son killed a calf accidentally with his chariot. The cow came and asked the king for justice. In return the king, killed his own son, with the same chariot, to render justice to his Subject, who was an animal (cow).

. Magna Carta or Charter of Liberties, drafted by the British and published in 1215, is considered one of the most important documents in human history. It says that each and every individual is equal before the law. The document has become the basis of many democratic countries’ model of a republic. Cholas 500 years before that, laid written rules for democracy. The three major aspects of democracy found in the Chola administration were decentralisation of powers, people-friendly taxation and judicial system sans heinous punishments.

We talk of super empires like Roman empire (27BC to 400ad) to British empire to USA, pause and think there was one dynasty in South India who ruled for 1500 years a comparable land area, very efficiently and effectively using high culture, high engineering, justice and democracy.

Cholas contribution to Indian and world civilisation include the following : Chola bronzes, rust proof steel, mettalurgy, architecture, civil engineering, dams, water works, irrigation canals, self governance, women's empowerment, powerful queens, food production, agricultural innovation, Naval innovation, economic and trading innovations, jurisprudence and constitution.

As an Indian, and also a world citizen, you must be proud, we had such an ancient and glorious civilization, contributing a lot to welfare of mankind across the globe.

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Now about the Novel..

. I have not read the 5 volume Novel, Ponniyin Selvan written by Kalki. My elder brother Ranganathan, who has read all the five volumes of the novel in Tamil has this to say about the Novel.. "It would be difficult to put down the book once you start reading. The writing style is amazing. It has all the ingredients like friendship, treachery, valour, romance, humour, inter faith conflicts, espionage, suspense and even spirituality. Each character gels beautifully with the plot and it is difficult to cull and identify one specific character as the hero or heroine of this mega narration"

Now about the Movie and my review of the film after watching.

. Big budget film, about 500 crores or 60 million USD. Uses IMAX technology. I wish they have English sub titles so other country people can see it.

. It's released in 5 languages. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

. Directed by legendary Mani Ratnam who gave super hits for almost 30 years from Roja, Bombay, Guru, Nayakan, Thalapathi, Mouna Ragam etc..

. Music by Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman. BTW, he has multiple Grammy, Oscar awards apart from dozen filmfare awards.

. Mega stars from Aishwarya, Trisha, Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi etc.

. It has all the elements of a good drama. Politics to Romance, treachery to conquests, heros to mega villains.

To help you I have given the names of characters in the movie in the end.

Saw the movie Ponniyin Selvan 1 (PS1) today, Oct 1st 2022. It's indeed a magnum opus.

. Brilliant cinematography, screen play and direction. Costumes and make up are outstanding.

. The fight sequences in battle field and the ocean, and the granduer of the sets reminded me the best of Hollywood movies from Gladiator to Titanic

. All the actors have played their part very well. Karthi, Vikram, Jeyam Ravi, Aishwarya and Trisha have done an awesome job. Mani Ratnam seem to have got what he wanted from each of them.

. The movie is able to keep the audience riveted despite the twist and turns. Even the way they ended part 1, though abrupt, makes you want to watch part 2 soon.

However there are a few areas I think it falls short.

. Mani Ratnam could not take any creative Liberties as this Novel is well known and read in Tamil Nadu. The original novel, written by Kalki was a non linear narration and a messenger (vanthiya devans) POV, gradually evolving over 200 weeks over 4 years in a weekly magazine. However, Mani Ratnam has the tough job of making the story linear so audience can follow the movie, and also give lessons in history to a non Tamil audience. All within first few mins.

. This robs has the opportunity to introduce a proper prelude on the history of Cholas. For a person who has not read the novel or the plot, one needs to focus on the first 15 mins of the movie very closely where the story and characters are introduced. If you miss it, you can find it difficult to follow. Also a lot of non Tamil speaking audiences might not know Chola history. The length and breadth of the chola empire and thier contribution to indian culture, civilisation, temples governance needs to have been mentioned for few mins before start of movie in few sentences.

Second thing, this movie has lots of characters (more than 20). So for the uninitiated this can be overwhelming. If you are expecting a bahubali type of movie, you might not get it for this reason alone. This movie is based on a very famous book and Mani Ratnam stuck to the script.

Despite these few small flaws, this film is a movie goers delight. Must watch.

Nash Narasimhan Tupil

Oct 1st 2022