Ponniyin Selvan - 2

 

Disclaimer: I haven't read the novel. I have, however, heard the story being retold 

by Kavitha Jeeva on a podcast over two and a half year period from 2019-21. 

This retelling of the story in conversational Tamil made me understand 

the plot, story-line, period, and the main characters in the novel. 

Understanding and appreciating the movie was easier, 

since I had a grasp of the story as written by Kalki Krishnamurthy.

 

I watched PS-1 in a cinema in 2022 when it was released. I liked the way the movie was taken, the picturisation, the period depicted, costumes, dialogues, sound, and the effects shown. I couldn't appreciate the music or the songs and I found that many people with whom I had discussed the same had similar views. Some however, were sticklers for the story by Kalki and didn't like the cinematic liberties taken by Mani Ratnam. For me, that wasn't important since I know that condensing a novel into a two part movie would need some sacrifices and that is left to the director to show it the way he wants.

PS-2 has better music and songs in addition to all the above plus points mentioned earlier about PS-1. So a flaw widely discussed in social media and across conversations was addressed in PS-2. Significant deviations from the novel are clearly seen in the movie and certain additions (unnecessary, in my opinion) are there too. The childhood romance between Aditha Karikalan and Nandini are digressions and delving into detail on that aspect increased the length of the movie at the cost of certain aspects in the novel that explained the motives of certain characters into behaving the way they did and the decisions that they took.

It is not possible, in my opinion, to condense the novel into a 5-6 hour movie and certain portions in the novel have to be edited out. The liberty taken by Mani Ratnam therefore seems justified!