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Thoughts on Ponniyin Selvan Part 2


If I am being very honest (and a little lazy), a lot of things that went for PS1 can also be said for PS2. Great performances, great music, engaging action scenes and occasionally too fast to follow. Watchable and rewatchable. 

Now, to get more detailed. The movie has very much diverted from its source material. It did in part-1 but in part-2 the difference is very visible, including some major plot points. But, to its credit, it has diverted in a way that makes the movie a really good watch. To anyone who wants the movie to be an exact screen rendering of the books - you will be very much disappointed. To those who can view it as a different medium, beautiful movie. 


Like before, the movie pulls no punches. The violence is violent.The action scenes have actually improved since the first movie. The last war scene (which is not even present in the books but served as a good plot element for a few key points) was gripping. Realistic action scenes with high stakes and quite a lot of blood.


Till the end, the royalty is not glorified or deified like you would expect from other stories of kings. The movie drives home the point that these people kill for a living.


The cast. Well it has been said before and I will say it again. Stellar performance. Vikram and Aishwarya Rai dominated a lot of screen time and again I am convinced that this is Vikram’s best performance yet. He has portrayed Karikalan better than even Kalki would have imagined. Every scene, every frame of him, he has done it to perfection. The moment he meets Nandhini in Kadambur takes the peak. Karthi did what he did in the first movie: be cool. To be honest there were not enough scenes with Vanthiyathevan, the character everyone wanted to see on screen. Vikram Prabhu has upped his game since last time, and has significantly more screen presence. To everyone’s disappointment, Poonguzhali’s character has been made very flat and as mere eye candy. Jayam Ravi’s action scenes are great, can’t say much about the rest.


The music. The music is actually where the cons of the movie start. Don’t get me wrong, the movie has  some of the best songs and background scoring. The music during the interval scene, the theme for the characters, the songs, the music of action scenes are incredible. But, whereas the first movie excels in song placement, in the second movie, almost all the songs feel awkwardly placed and the last one is straight up very bad. The movie opens with not one, not two, but three songs back to back. Back to back three songs, imagine that. It is clear that two of those have been taken from another place and put here to make room for a new, bad one. Listening to the songs separately, it is obvious that each was written with a purpose in mind. But that purpose has been thrown out, probably for a marketing stunt, by releasing a song one week before the movie (Chozha anthem) in which Rahman positively sounds like he is in pain and swapped it out in place of one of the best songs in the series, and used that said best song for an entirely unrelated scene and mood. I mean. It was beyond unbelievable. The movie has a very delicate and carefully constructed score that only a master like Rahman can even begin to create. To take that butcher it for god knows what reason is simply disappointing. Did not expect the team to do such a thing, after spending so much effort on this movie.


The next con is the editing, which at times felt like cheap tricks. I guess butchering the background score also comes under this? I don't know. Couple of scenes seem incomplete and confusing, owing to the sheer amount of things happening in the movie. The first movie moved fast and the second moved even faster. Some scenes here and there are like this. But it is noticeable. To the point that the movie felt hazy after walking out of the theatre.


Seems like the dialogue has been much improved since the last movie. 


Mani Ratnam has tried to tie some loose ends that Kalki left unattended. And it’s a fairly good job. Changing the dynamic between Nadhini and Karikalan, and changing the plotline for Madhurantakan were the biggest directions from the books and honestly it felt fine.


CG was amazing again. The sets and artwork were great.


It’s a good movie and a worthy sequel. As a series, PS is a good rendering of the books, though not an accurate one. If you loved the first movie, you will love this too. It is no doubt that the actors who played these characters will be remembered for them throughout their careers, and that PS1&2 will be household names when it comes to Tamil Cinema for a long time. It is gonna take quite a while for this to become outdated, especially since it’s already a thousand years old.


If you liked the movies, there is probably a podcast episode coming up, where we analyse both the movies more deeply than we can do in an article, and the books and also the dirty politics behind the story. Stay tuned.


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