What's Wrong with Ponniyin Selvan?

One of the most awaited films ever.

A big star cast.

Award winning music director.

A filmmaker known for his successful track record.

More importantly, a film based on Tamil literature’s most talked about classic by Kalki.

And yet, there’s something missing.

Calm down, I’ll tell you about it in a bit.

First let me tell you what I loved about the movie.

How can we miss it, the grandeur?

The sets looked as real as it could get. Even exquisite.

And so was the photography, which is a given in any Mani Ratnam film.

And every single actor on the screen has wonderfully pulled off their roles, even if limited by screen/story time.

I’m not even going to talk about Rahman because it’d be so stupid and redundant to reiterate how good the compositions elevated the film.

‘So when every goddamn thing was beyond point, what’s your problem Sibi?’

Sorry (but not sorry) for being a bummer, I didn’t quite like the way the writing was adapted for the screen.

There, I said it.

(It’s okay if I lose some friends :p )

Have I read the Ponniyin Selvan novels?

Nope.

Should I have read them all before watching the movie?

Probably. Not necessarily.

But should it stop one from critiquing the film as a singular product?

Absolutely not.

With that contention out of the way… let’s move to the real problem.

Here’s something that’s crucial to any story.

The hero’s journey.

Introduced by Joseph Campbell in his ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, the hero’s journey is simply one protagonist’s journey against all odds to achieve their goals.

This is what makes us root for the protagonist. And it is what makes a film or a story ‘click and work’.

And this is what I guess PS 1 lacked essentially.

There were too many protagonists. And because of that there weren’t any protagonists.

Now, some might say the makers have adapted the novel truthfully. Because in the novels, it doesn’t seem like there is a singular protagonist.

But here’s it: the novel as a medium is different than film as a medium.

Between a novel and a film- there is a reduction in bandwidth, time, and space to ingest importance for every single character.

That’s why you might feel impressed even dealing with a gazillion important characters in a novel series like Ponniyin Selvan.

That’s why you might feel impressed even with a gazillion important characters in a stretched-out series like Game of Thrones.

Imagine Game of Thrones. Now imagine the rise and fall of all events and characters inside a single film. That’s what has happened to Ponniyin Selvan in a way.

Next is the story’s goal.

What are my characters trying to achieve? Has it been made very clear in the first 10 minutes or at least 20 minutes of the movie? Said, but not clear enough? Syd Field is disappointed.

One way the makers could have solved this is by weighing a major portion of the story on one or two characters. My choice would have been between Vandiyathevan, Aditha Karikaalan and Arunmozhivarman.

So it becomes easy for the audience to grasp the pulse of the story and not having to play catch up even after the second half.

But all said, PS 1 is a must watch – for the makers and the love that has visibly gone into the making of this magnum opus.

That’s not all.

I’d also like to leave you with just one more question…

Weren’t there any gorgeous ‘true to the southern landscape’ dark-skinned princesses in the Chola kingdom?

Only the fair ones, eh?

Okay then.

PS: This blog was supposed to be about copywriting. But then I got drifted away. Here’s what I was about to tell you: how the elements of a good story could be used in copy to get more brand mileage and profits for your business. But more about that in the upcoming blogs. Ciao.