#whythebookisbetter

I've often felt that people that thirst for power seldom know how to wield it which is why it is extremely satisfying when power and authority rests in the hands of ones that actively shun it, knowing that it corrupts from within . Kalki Krishnamurthy must have felt the same way.

Why else would he write that splendid ending for Ponniyin Selvan if he felt otherwise?

Ponniyin Selvan has so many painstakingly etched narrative arcs but the penultimate story arc where the cards are revealed and the lots are drawn is a masterpiece in story telling . For the most part of the novel Senthan Amuthan comes across as a naive , innocent and plain odhuvar whose single goal in life is to love his cousin with no hopes of winning her hand.

The readers don't realize until much later that this man has lived most of his life as a penance for a single lapse in judgment made by his mother. He knows he has a right to rule and claiming that right would give him love, power and a mother, but he just doesn't act. He is staid and calm, undisturbed and uncaring about the war of succession that's happening . He has no personal ambitions except for winning Kuzhali's hand and helping her where he can , even if it means losing her affections

Even when Kuzhali reveals her ambitions to be queen , he stays firm in his resolve and doesn't reveal the secret of his birth . Therefore , it's extremely satisfying when Kuzhali accepts his suit and it's revealed after that he's the original Madurantaka . This emotional heft carries well into the coronation ceremony where Vandiyathevan has to physically restrain Amudhan in order to crown him King.

The emotional center of Ponniyin Selvan is centered around Amudhan post Adithan's death and in discarding this story arc in favor of a war with the Rashtrakoota King Amoghavarsha and the subsequent crowning of Madurantaka (not Amudhan) , Mani Ratnam loses most of the emotional heft he's constructed for the movie. The fact that he teases the book loyalists with a lot of cues peppered through the narrative and then discards the same cues for that damp squib of a coronation ceremony doesn't help matters.

A stunning piece of story writing from the novel is reduced to a perfunctory under-thought ending accompanied by hastily undercooked music . Amudhan and Kuzhali are bidden hasty goodbyes and seeing the undeserving Madurantaka win the crown makes me wonder if MR wasn't invested enough in characters other than Aditya to think things through.

Like the much maligned Amudhan , I too bid a hasty good bye to this ending that reduces a stunning movie to a mere good one.

I will rewatch and revisit this movie multiple times . It is superbly written for the most part and carries its emotional weight in gold until the last narrative arc. But every time I rewatch this , I will always go back to the book and imagine an alternate reality where the movie was thirty minutes longer and delivered power to the one that actively shunned it .