Ponniyin Selvan-Kalki

[rajes002]

Just finished reading the english transalation of PS. "Good" one... but not "Great"!!

I know ppl will come down hard on me for saying this: But for someone who has read many suspense filled and thrilling english novels, PS only appears as a very good attempt.

I admire the ability of Kalki to weave a fictional story out of a few recorded historical facts. I think Kalki was trying to awaken the tamil spirit in the readers of his time. It was most probably very necessary to overcome the influence of English/western and North Indian language and culture.

I'm not happy with a few things though:

1. Sendan Amuthan who eventually is portrayed as the 'original' Madhuranthakar is introduced to us at the start of the novel as a 'young boy'... but in the middle of the story, he suddenly emerges as a 'young man'.

I think Kalki came up with the 'child-swapping' idea (which appears in many desi-masala films later) much later in the story to introduce another angle to the story (Fortunately, Kalki did not introduce the much used family song idea - Just kidding)

2. It is difficult to imagine the elder sister, Kundhavai not yet married when the younger brother, Arulmozhivarman is getting ready to get married. I think it was th norm then for girls to get married when they are in their teens...

I think the sister was most probably married by the time Aditya Karikalan died. Kalki had to ignore this and introduce the Kundavai-Vandiyathevan romantic angle to keep the story interesting.

3. I think Nandini is a totally fictional character and there is no records of such a person. Kalki had to introduce this scheming character and hint at many possibilities such as similar Mandurathakan-Nandini twins etc to maintain the suspsense.

Again Nandini reminded me of the mega serials of present day, which pit the 'evil vs virtuous' women and show how the virtuous woman emerges triumphant in the end!! However, Kalki has bought out the grey shades in all characters well.

4. I hated to see Kalki portray Arulmozhivarman as the then present-day avatar of Rama with respect to his sacrifice... and goody-goody nature etc etc... Kalki fails in his attempt... moreover historical records show that Arulmozhivarman and his son, Rajendran allowed their troops to raze Anuradhapuram in Srilanka to the ground!