Ponniyin Selvan – I movie review
Story:
The film is based on reputed Tamil writer Kalki Krishnamurthy’s novel with the same title, Ponniyin Selvan glorifies the greatness of the Chola kingdom that was in existence almost 1000 years back.
Who tries to conquer the kingdom? How will king Aditya Karikalan (Vikram) try to protect it? What is the role of Kundhavai(Trisha)? How is Nandini’s role interconnected with the entire setup?
What is the prominence of Arunmozhi Varman (Jayam Ravi) forms the main theme of the movie.
Analysis:
Director Maniratnam has maintained the soul of Kalki’s book effectively. The plot makes the audience aware of what is at stake and not much explanation is needed.
In the first half of the movie, a lot of the plot is driven by dialogue with very little action but the second half more than makes up for it.
All the lead actors gave decent performances in this period film.
While Vikram is good with his screen presence, Jayam Ravi gets the best introduction as Arunmozhi Varman.
Karthi is impressive as Vandhiyathevan. His combination scenes with Jayaram are too good.
Trisha and Aishwarya Rai are stunning with their screen presence and did a decent job in their respective roles.
Other artists including Sarath Kumar, Parthiban, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Shobita Dhulipala are fine in their limited screen time.
AR Rahman’s BGM is terrific and adds more grandeur to the movie.
Cinematographer Ravi Varman has presented the visuals in larger than life manner.
Rating: 3.4/5