The Making and Viewing of Ponniyin Selvan (PS-1)

We had planned to watch the movie on first day, not first show, but the evening, or late-night show. Circumstances conspired to deny us that privilege. Son had to be away on duty travel, d-i-law to India to accompany her mother on personal work, and Aunty was busy accepting and extending invitations for Haldi-Kum Kum during Navaratri. That left just me in the ever-ready category. Nonetheless, we managed to watch it just a day before it was to be off the city theatres. Man proposes God disposes. But better late than never.

The Making

A Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman movie –  that is how the publicity goes these days. Good for Rahman bhai. Mani gave him the break 30 years ago, and Rahman stood by him like a solid rock. In fact, things have reached a stage where people watch a particular movie more for Rahman’s musical score. And rightly for Mani’s magnum opus PS-1, he elevated Rahman’s status by tagging Rahman’s name alongside his own. But then it is accepted that Rahman gives his best music to Mani and the rest to other producers.

Marketing hype has been the mainstay of this movie. I don’t particularly remember having browsed through or watched so much of promotional material as for PS-1. Sriram, a Historian, shares the background information of the story. Back in the 1950s the historic novel, which he calls ‘faction’ (fact and fiction combined) was serialized in Kalki, a weekly Tamil magazine. Thanks to that the circulation soared from mere 12 000 copies to 73 000 copies, and every household waited for the next issue. (As I shared on an earlier occasion, my mother used to send me, then about 10, to Pushkala Mami’s house to fetch Kalki (with incentives on unwilling occasions), in their magazine-exchange programme. Such was their keenness on the story.) The author, who hailed himself Kalki Krishnamurthy, was inspired by the history of the Choza kingdom, and wove into it his own fiction to make it interesting week after week. Also, as an ardent admirer of the French writer Alexandre Dumas, he transplanted some of the characters of Three Musketeers into this story…

As for the title of the story, the famous king Raja Raja Chozan, as a child,  got drowned in the river Cauvery and was saved at the nick of time. The farming community hailed river Cauvery as Ponni, the giver or gold (Tanjore was the rice-belt of South India). Thus the name, Ponniyin Selvan, the son of Ponni or Cauvery.

Another hype was the grand completion-felicitation ceremony where Jairam, one of the characters in the movie, did a laugh-a-minute mimicry. Then there was an also-ran category artist who gave an interesting interview highlighting the nuances of Mani’s directions (with examples) that can easily be part of a syllabus.

Determined to reach a wider audience, Mani Ratnam met the exhibitors in Mumbai and persuaded them to reduce the gate money from Rs 500 or so to Rs 100. And they agreed. Now a family of four had to spend just Rs 400, and not Rs 2000 to watch the movie. And it did pay dividends, as can be seen from the reported cash collections. The movie is doing very well.

The Viewing

The movie per se is interesting and a visual treat. There are numerous characters, and consequently a host of top-grade artists are in place. The first half was devoted to introducing the characters to the audience. Hence a little slow moving. Understandable. The second half compensated for it with fast paced narration. Rahman’s music was as usual very good (3.5). Mani Ratnam’s direction makes the story move as swiftly as possible (3.5). Ravi Varman’s cinematography is outstanding, if not breathtaking (4.00) – the way he has captured various scenes in the canvas. My guess is he will go a long way. The settings, courtesy art director Thotta Tharani, are excellent (4.00). Thus the average works out to 3.5 – a rating that most professionals have accorded it. With several leading Tamil actors on board, Mani involuntarily introduced an element of competition, a healthy one,  among them to outperform the other.

Overall, all the four of us – me, Aunty, d-i-l, and the younger grandson who, till we literally entered Gate 2 theatre, was making a hard bargain with his mother to let him watch, instead, an English movie in Gate 3, was glad he watched PS1 though he had to rely largely on sub-titles.