Ponniyin Selvan 2 @ PS2

(Spoiler alert: Not sure what I am giving away, but there may be some stuff you better off not knowing now, but if you are familiar with the story the books are based on, perhaps it’s fine)

The highly anticipated second part to last year’s Ponniyin Selvan has hit the theatres and for the poor industry that had been enduring pretty dull outings of lately finally got something that would jerk the shoulder of audiences who have been sleepwalking into theatres. The film lives up to it’s promise and premise – unless you are a huge fan of the original books. Any fans of books will have, one way or another, gripes about film versions. I am a fan of Ian Fleming’s books, I am as jaded as Luke Skywalker in the recent Star War instillments when it comes to the adaptations.

This is not a sequel perse, but continuation as the film was intentionally broke into two parts, having had majority of the scenes shot at one go. Kinda what they did with the Lord of The Rings flicks. So, to compare with the first would be unfair, depending on who’s reviewing.

But I tell you this, its’s a lot more intriguing and exciting this time around, thanks to the narration’s focus on the dramatic character clashes and political skirmishes. Here, the lead characters are fleshed out even further and given lots of emotional dimensions – scopes that unfortunately some performers are out of depth with.

Speaking of which, I had my issues with Aishwarya Rai and Trisha, with their frozen demeanour that I spoke about in the review of the first film. I still have issues with the two overstaying actresses, but having had already anticipated that, it didn’t interfere with my viewing pleasure this time around. It probably added to the joy of other scenes, having these two piss poor performances out of the way.

This time, the narration is briskly paced, scenes are given good beating like in an interrogation room – truth comes out in most of them. In fact, I was even enthralled by a romantic scene involving Karthi’s Vandhiyadevan and Trisha, involving a sword. It was titillating, frankly even exuded with sublime eroticism and Karthi nailed his confusion amidst convulsion of pain, and compulsion of still needing to wisecrack within his predicaments. More on him later.

As mentioned the story moves, moves and moves. It never lets up, with exception of the encounter between Vikram’s and Aishwarya Rai’s Nandhini, a very well written sequence with an important end. The climactic battle sequence is a lot more better shot and edited, and we have an idea of who’s frickin’ fighting whom, an issue I often have with even many well-made Hollywood flicks, where we sort of get lost amidst heavy cutting, and multiple angles and varying distances that they keep alternating, giving us a goddamned headache.

Vikram gets to do more heavylifting this time around, and he did it gloriously. It's satisfying that he was picked for this role, a lion with thorn in the paw, and he roared his way through with lots of hurt, continuing where he left off. His ending was apt. It may have been anticipated, by those who knows the story, it still feels shocking.

Mani have tough time juggling many important characters, as he did in the first film. But he sort of nailed it down to what matters to the central strain of the story, and limited the focus to the main characters. Others make appearances too, like ones played by Prabhu Ganesan, his son, Vikram Prabhu and Parthiban, the latter who had bigger part in the first one. But its thoroughly satisfying, nevertheless.

If only the lead character was played by a far more powerful actress, this film would be up there with the Veerapandiya Kattabomman or Karnan -  too bad. It could be wrong casting decision, but then, it could be that the industry, the last thirty years, at least, had been bereft of truly mesmerising, strong female performers. Definitely by choice, thanks to the male dominated industry.

Mani has delivered and thank god it was him. Both MGR and Kamal Haasan wanted to adapt the books, but I get a feeling that if at all they were made, the films would cater to the fans of the stars, not the books, more. There are rumblings about caste already in the first film, and it is very notably present in this film as well. But guess what? Mani didn’t give a ****. He just went on with it, and so be it. For a quiet, soft spoken, almost effete director, he is one stubborn goat and that is why this film managed to get made in the first place. Despite my own personal disdain for some of the stuff he did onscreen in the past, I salute him. Good job.

Additional Note: Karthi continues with his fantastic performances as Vandhiyadevan and I think his character would be great in a spin-off. Just him, perhaps his girl pal, the fabulous boat gal played by Aishwarya Lakshmi and his best frenemy played by Jayaram off onto another bunch of adventures. On the other hand…they might totally ruin it. Oh, I shut up.