From the perspective of a non-native, who hasn't read the book(s)
For having been regaled with delectable fares from his oeuvre for over couple decades, the non-native audience can certainly give a pass to Mani Ratnam for unleashing his passion project, a true salt of the earth Tamil epic on a totally unsuspecting and an unprepared segment, simply as a gesture of heartfelt gratitude.
a. For his brilliant Nayakan, and the ultra-stylized Agni Nakshatram - The business reasons aside, artistically speaking, 'Ponniyin Selvan' would have certainly endeared itself to the non-native audience had it been released just as a standalone Tamil film, allowing the more discerning ones to seek the movie out out on their own volition (like the great works of Adoor or Ray or like the 7 hour mammoth movie version of War & Peace), instead of releasing the movie as is, retaining the core native aspects of the book as they are and expecting the audience to play catch up right from the word go.... starting with the names. Throughout the length of the movie, with a running tally (right till the end) of tongue-twisting proper nouns that fills out a proper A4 sheet front and back, the exercise became one of a Memory game, that has a bunch of kids sit in a circle and each whisper a name in the next one's ear, with the next one tagging his own word to the previous one and passing on to the next, and the object of the game is keeping the chain of words alive through the circle. It is a curious choice to retain the original names even in the dubbed version, for no other reason other than to maintain the lip sync. In this day and age, when the audience is ever more forgiving (even in the natives fares), as far as lip sync in concerned, the movie would have benefited greatly had the names been short, simple and local, instead of being subjected to "pedda paluveTTaraayuDu", "vallavaraaya vandyadevuDu", "Poonguzhali" and many such (sorry, all such, except a relief inducing, "Nandini") every other second. The cup of woes surely runneth over, when Kundavarai interrupts the secret conclave of the scheming cheiftains and tries to the break up the alliance, by proposing marriage alliances with a few among them, and even there, Ratnam doesn't leave out the names of the prospective brides, who may (or may not) have any significance in the movie. Instead of treating the books as canon, he surely could have exercised his editorial role over the material and eased up a bit on the nomenclature aspect of the movie, delivering a more comprehendible version of the literary classic.
b. For his daring forays into the darker realm - Kaatru Veliyadai and Kadal - The culture shock aside, 'Ponniyin Selvan' appears to be an adventure fare with palace intrigue propelling the required momentum. In the current age of highly intricate intertwining narratives thrown up by the small screen, when it comes to palace machinations, the intrigue part of 'Selvan' appears rather tame as the dialogue barely rises above the perfunctory plot detailing. While it is definitely a tough task to reduce a 2000 page novel into a few hours plot, where reduction becomes the order of the day than retention, the flesh of majority of the characters got trimmed down the bone, leaving barely enough to further the story. Never is it more evident than the Vikram character's outburst (which was beautifully conceived, shot and acted) at his sister's suggestion of returning to Tanjavur leaving behind the warzone, where a backstory of what would have been more than a few tens of pages at least gets reduced to a monologue lasting a few minutes, causing the character's outpuring of emotions as just another variation of exposition. And the "adventure" parts of the movie leave a lot to be desired, which essentially involves the Karthi character engaged in tomfoolery, escaping from various clutch situations at various points of time in ways that would mildly amuse anyone at best. The situations definitely needed some creative thinking from the stunt choreographer, than a mere Point A to Point B steeple chase race. The action segments peppered at regular intervals all have a very tepid feeling about them, be it the battle sequences or the Karthi character's hijinks, and if (sadly) budgetary choices were involved in the toning down of the action element, the movie surely shows for it. A few thrusts of a sword here, some furious gallops over the horse there, quick cuts of wounded/fallen soldiers here and there, and a mighty battle quickly comes to an end, failing to ring/register any kind of battle high.
c. For his poignant features, Roja and Bombay - Expectations aside, 'Ponniyin Selvan' truly shines in the economy of its staging. Clearly spectacle wasn't what Ratnam was going for, and the technical departments quickly fall in line delivering a product that's grounded, realistic and minimal. The palaces looked lived-in, the armory battle-worn, the (men's) hair unshaven and unkempt, 'Ponniyin' surely lives up to its historical tag. The style is reminiscent of Shyam Benegal's 'Bharat Ek khoj', an aesthetic interpretation of Nehru's 'Discovery of India', made for Doordarshan in the 80's. Stripped away of all the metaphorical and exaggerated aspects of life in historical times, Ratnam (along with his cameraman) puts a contemporaneous spin on not just the visual aspect of the movie, but the spoken part as well (credited to Tanikella Bharani). Usually known for his visual fe(a)sts, Ratnam stress-tested this barebones approach in his earlier (similar themed) 'Nawab', succeeding at which he persists with a similar aesthetic that is at once brilliant and apt. The cinematographer genius here is his discipline restrainig himself from painting his frames or dripping them in visual splendor. Except for Rahman, who tries to (unnecessarily) up the tempo with thunderous background score when the visuals do not seem to match his urgency, the production design and the costuming (for men, at least) shares Ratnam's vision for realism. Which behoves the question, whose style choice was it to whitewash the faces of the leading ladies, Aishwarya Rai and Trisha in particular, making it seem as though there were several iterations of DI done on them to remove the slightest speck of brown pigmentation, making them look more mannequin than human. It sticks out as a sore thumb in an otherwise flat, consistent visual palette. (Doing so wouldn't have reduced the breathtaking beauty of the queens even a bit, like the Kareena Kapoor character in Santosh Sivan's (minimalist) 'Ashoka' or even the many brown beautiful queens in 'Bharat Ek Khoj'),
'One for them and one for me' is the approach that commercial stars usually take starring in features that have little box office prospects, but have great artistic merit. For the non-native audience, 'Ponniyin Selvan' is Ratnam's "one for me", for all years that he has been doing "one for them". Ratnam deserves it.
checkout http://kanchib.blogspot.com for Srinivas's Blog.
