Ponniyin Selvan: Part One

Ponniyin Selvan: Part One

The Chola kingdom is under threat from forces both internal and external, and with crown prince Aaditha Karikalan, his younger brother Arunmozhi Varman and the emperor, Sundara Cholar separated by situations, it is up to a messenger to ensure the safety of the kingdom. Can he succeed in his mission, especially with Karikalan's former girlfriend, Nandhini, plotting to bring down the entire Chola empire?

  • Released: 2022-09-30
  • Runtime: 167 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Drama, History
  • Stars: Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha Krishnan, Sobhita Dhulipala, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Prakash Raj, Prabhu, R. Sarathkumar, Vikram Prabhu, Jayaram, Rahman, R. Parthiban, Jayachitra, Ashwin Kakumanu, Lal, Nassar, Kishore, Nizhalgal Ravi, Riyaz Khan, Mohan Raman, Arjun Chidambaram, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan, Balaji Sakthivel, Sara Arjun, Babu Antony, Master Raghavan, Gopi Kannadasan, Ashwin Rao Pallakki, Vijayakumar, Yoge Jappie, Makrand Deshpande
  • Director: Mani Ratnam
 Comments
  • anandaavishnu - 10 January 2023
    Manirathinam views of PS
    Is Manirathinam the smartest director who can show the characteristics of an individual with a frame?

    Vishnuvin parvaiyil ponniyin Selvan!!!

    Naan rasitha sila nunukangal

    Nandhini - most of the frame is framed in a side shot, reddish background or half hidden in a curtain - He clearly communicates to the audience that she is just showing one half of her actual character and, whenever her full face is shown, that would be the scene where her cunning character comes out

    Aditya karikalan - he is a perfect modern-era manager who most of us either try or act at least - People friendly manager. Mani smartly got his intro song where he celebrates his victory with his ground staff ( first level army folks instead of celebrating with top management). In the current management era - every manager has one loyal staff member to whom all the critical tasks are being assigned. Manager feels happy if he/she is in the office, which is exactly shown in the war field where he smiles in between the chaos when he sees Karthik. He also showed that he is not interested in power in the entire movie. He was never shown with a crown in a single frame.

    Trisha - surprise for everyone that she nailed the kundavai character. Mani smart again placed most of the frame at a straight angle and her head is up, which shows she stands right, straightforward, smart.

    Sarathkumar - Mani showed him clearly he was a puppet of Nandhini. In most of the scenes with Aishwarya, he removes his king attire and turns into a normal man. I see in a way that he removes his smartness and veeram look in front of Nandhini and is ready to lose the battle in front of Beauty.

    Umai arasi - all the frames she is shown in the loose hair are probably because she is gonna play a vital role in the 2nd part in removing a lot of knots in the story.

    Ponniyin Selvan - no one thought that Jayam Ravi would be idle for this role, which was done by Sivaji Ganesan. Probably Mani chose him purely for his voice. Arul Mozhi Varman's character showed in such a way that he is a soft, light-headed and strategic player. Soft is shown by his way of speech, walk despite having his heads up. It's very clear that he is not interested in power in a few instances - when he rejects the Srilankan kingdom and his Durban is always a light weight and simple one compared to other kings, which looks majestic. He is very good at strategy compared to his brother Aditya karikalan - JR gives away his attire to Karthik during the close of the movie to deceive his enemy, whereas Vikram always wants to fight without thinking, which is proven in 2 instances - once he wants to fight a strongest enemy without having sufficient back up and 2nd one he blindly go to Tanjore to kill Nandini when he heard abt JR missing despite his grandfather suggest him to take a move post thinking abt it.

    Prakash Raj - Mani has shown him clearly in all the frames that he has lost all his strength but not thet the power or wisdom. Most of the scenes, he is either seen lying down or needs support for a walk but his head/chin is up. One of the beautiful scenes is the acupressure scene where the needles are poked at his back + traitors having conversation with him.

    Nambi - the most notorious character of this movie but still requires a lot of screen space to show his actual importance in this role. But throughout the movie is shown losing the battle with Karthik, but that's not the case. He is plotting what Karthik actually needs to be doing for him. Perfect Chanakya material

    Vanthiyadevan - i definitely need more time to write abt this guy. Don't think even Rajni would have done this role better if he was given to play. No wonder Karthik will be renamed as Vanthiyadevan going forward.

    Not every battle scene needs a high budget support staff, huge set up and strong background score. A perfect example is an eye war between kundavai and Nandhini. Simple face off scene but a powerful one for this movie.

    This movie definitely calls for multiple-time watches, not because we don't understand the story but to see the director's touch with this wonderful novel. The story is clearly told in the first 10 mins with the strong voice of Kamalahaasan.

    Lot of people say Mani has a love with ARR music but I would he has an emotional bonding with Camera and colours than music

    Ponniyin Selvan is definitely PORkaalangalin & PORkalathin Selvan.. πŸ™πŸΌπŸ™πŸΌπŸ™πŸΌ
  • kainatrc - 29 November 2022
    Very complicated movie
    This movie consists of the various top artists..the plus point of this movie. Yes this can be a reason which attract audiences to theatre. But when you start watching its quite difficult to understand. Generally I always watch the original one with subtitles to mantain the original flavor but after watching it for few mins I switched to Hindi dubbed. Again I had the same problem. The names of the characters and places are so difficult and so many names are mentioned that it was like I am reading a history book in school and trying to remember all the names with so much effort that I missed to enjoy the movie. It was only towards the after interval I could relate the names and characters and could enjoy the movie. I don't think audience would take so much pain to wait till end to watch and enjoy the real taste. Movies are made for entertainment but if one has to put so much effort to understand, who would love to watch it. Since till the end I could relate the places and characters and after watching few minutes of the second part PS 2 I m eagerly waiting to watch it. Before watching it one has to make sure that he or she puts full concentration while watching to enjoy it to the fullest.