Ponniyin Selvan book was a historical-fiction considered to be amongst the greatest Tamil book ever. So it's a good Story, set in 10th Century, Chola dynasty, which is considered as the time when Tamil language, art, architecture and culture reached it's pinnacle. Cholas amongst the greatest rulers the world has ever seen. The story is a fiction based on real characters and some real incidents. So the movie adaptation delivered any of these?
There are many good things. First the ensemble cast and lead characters performances, They've all done a good job. Then the cinematography, costume design and art work looked very good..
But are they enough to connect with the audience? Unfortunately not. There are two main issues. One is the lead female cast. Though they acted well, they looked like cat walk models with loads of makeup and lipstick. They looked more like a social media posters than a Tamil historical characters. Also there was no conviction or command or depth in their dialogue delivery.
Second biggest disappointment is the music. If you listen to the music alone, you would think the songs are not bad and background music is fine. But does it connect with the emotion of the scene or the plot?. I'm afraid not. The music is very contemporary and westernized, nothing feels like historical Tamil culture from Chola times. And the music is present all over the movie, in every scene, very loud, often makes it difficult to hear the dialogues, detached from the emotion. Which made the whole experience overwhelmingly noisy and messed up. Almost typical AR Rahman work. It would work for any modern film, sadly not for this film.
Now about direction - we all know Maniratham is a master filmmaker, technician and great at delivering emotional films. But he definitely didn't do these with this film. Some action scenes resembles Hollywood films. Some locations are repeated from his old films, which ruins the authenticity. Art works looked like they were just painted the day before shooting, there was no wear and tear or depth in it. Also there was clear effort on reducing costs, including minimizing whats shown on screen.
Manirathnam did a movie called Thalapathi in 1991, in which a popular song called "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu". At the end of the song there are few lines from "Tevaram", placed for that scene. Tevaram is a collection of poems/hymns from around 10th century, developed under Cholas. This is the same Chola period this movie was set in. The director who thought of it then, couldn't do it in a movie that needs rich technical backing specifically in music .
Overall, it was great opportunity to make an elite Tamil film at the highest standard on silver-screen, but what Manirathnam gave us is a TV drama.
There are many good things. First the ensemble cast and lead characters performances, They've all done a good job. Then the cinematography, costume design and art work looked very good..
But are they enough to connect with the audience? Unfortunately not. There are two main issues. One is the lead female cast. Though they acted well, they looked like cat walk models with loads of makeup and lipstick. They looked more like a social media posters than a Tamil historical characters. Also there was no conviction or command or depth in their dialogue delivery.
Second biggest disappointment is the music. If you listen to the music alone, you would think the songs are not bad and background music is fine. But does it connect with the emotion of the scene or the plot?. I'm afraid not. The music is very contemporary and westernized, nothing feels like historical Tamil culture from Chola times. And the music is present all over the movie, in every scene, very loud, often makes it difficult to hear the dialogues, detached from the emotion. Which made the whole experience overwhelmingly noisy and messed up. Almost typical AR Rahman work. It would work for any modern film, sadly not for this film.
Now about direction - we all know Maniratham is a master filmmaker, technician and great at delivering emotional films. But he definitely didn't do these with this film. Some action scenes resembles Hollywood films. Some locations are repeated from his old films, which ruins the authenticity. Art works looked like they were just painted the day before shooting, there was no wear and tear or depth in it. Also there was clear effort on reducing costs, including minimizing whats shown on screen.
Manirathnam did a movie called Thalapathi in 1991, in which a popular song called "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu". At the end of the song there are few lines from "Tevaram", placed for that scene. Tevaram is a collection of poems/hymns from around 10th century, developed under Cholas. This is the same Chola period this movie was set in. The director who thought of it then, couldn't do it in a movie that needs rich technical backing specifically in music .
Overall, it was great opportunity to make an elite Tamil film at the highest standard on silver-screen, but what Manirathnam gave us is a TV drama.
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