PS-2 Review: Ratnam Dazzles Yet Again As The Cholas Aim To Conquer Box Office Records

It is not a surprise that the Tamil and Telugu film industries have now gotten their untamed swagger to cover the whole of the country, capturing the pan-Indian heart, mind, and soul. For the uninitiated, their earlier sojourns were akin to a crown full of thorns that many southern directors and actors passed on from one to the other since the sixties onwards in the Indian Film Industry. Seeking a bigger market to cater to apart from the niche regional states, production houses, directors, and actors set up camp to remake their southern hits into Hindi. This not only proved vastly successful, but it also earned them the tag of being more productive, efficient, and smarter than their Bombay counterparts for a period, especially in the 1980s. They created a parallel microindustry that gave top producers and directors in Hindi a run for their money and even had stars like Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, and Mithun Chakraborty trekking to their southern film studios to star in a bevy of largely forgettable projects. Over the last decade or so, the tide has changed with the Baahubali series, KGF 1 and 2, Kantara, and Ponniyin Selvan-1 cementing the southern film industry as torch bearers of Indian cinema and as a collaborative entertainment industry to watch out for, even as their counterparts in Mumbai worked overtime remaking southern hits to varying degrees of success, headlined by leading stars from Mumbai.

This week at the box office turnstiles, it is Mani Ratnam’s second and final instalment of the Ponniyin Selvan series, ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2,’ or that will have reams written on it after last week’s Salman Khan starrer, ‘Kisi ka Bhai Kisi ki Jaan,’ flattered to deceive at the box office, struggling to reach even the Rs 100 crore mark that is normally guaranteed Salman Khan territory. As always, a Mani Ratnam release is always an event. This time, however, audiences are waiting with bated breath to see how the maestro delivers with the continuation of Ponniyin Selvan 1, which was a blockbuster release in September 2022. However, unlike PS1, which was a solo release last year, this week there is ‘Agent," starring Akhil Akkineni and Mammootty, also releasing and vying for the audience's attention.

‘Ponniyin Selvan 1,’ upon its release, notched up huge numbers, collecting to the tune of over Rs 500 crore, earning the title of Tamil cinema’s biggest blockbuster in 2022 along the way. It went on to become the second all-time Tamil film industry hit and the fastest Rs 100 crore-grosser in Tamil Nadu, earning a worldwide gross of over Rs 300 crore within six days of its release. The sequel, though, has gotten off to a comparatively sedate start, grossing Rs 28 crore (approximately) across India on its opening day and almost a similar number in the bag on its second day (according to Sacnilk.com). Initial reports are quite positive, with the trade already celebrating a Rs 100 crore worldwide gross within two days of the film’s release.

Mani Ratnam and Lyca Productions shot both parts simultaneously, a cinematic vision that could only be conjured by the former, adapting the five-part novel by Kalki Krishnamurthy from 1955. Set in the tenth century, it narrates the collective trials and tribulations of ambitious princes, chieftains, royal women, and kings battling their way to raise the flag of the Chola empire. There are palace intrigues as fringe clans of the Pallavas, Pandyas, and Rashtrakutas, too, embark on missions of laying siege to the grand southern empire as they infiltrate the kingdom like wolves through wily political machinations to bring the Cholas to their knees. In PS-2, Ratnam and his writers set out to unravel some of the key characters whom we were introduced to, namely Nandini (Aishwarya Rai), Aditha (Vikram), Oomai Rani/Mandakini (Aishwarya again), and weave intricate narratives to beef up the characters of Kundavai (Trisha), Sundara Chozhar (Prakash Raj), and Parthibendran Pallava (Vijay Prabhu). Though the titular character of Arunmozhi Varman (Jayam Ravi) is central to the proceedings, the second part provides more gravitas to the interplay of emotions between the eldest heir to the Chola throne, played by a fabulous Vikram, and his one-time love interest and now rival/enemy Aishwarya Rai, who steals the show completely from everyone in the sequel. Mani Ratnam does not resort to mere manipulation of the deviousness of his characters; he lets it unravel in front of our eyes. Each character’s arc is deftly framed, resonating with today’s audiences and reflecting the timelessness of human foibles, vulnerability, and inherent fallibility. The sequel instantly grabs you with its intention of providing detailed backstories for a cohort of characters that made up the first part. The short gap of seven months since the release of part one helps our ordinary memory latch on to the deep undertones and moral duplicity of key characters like Nandini (Aishwarya Rai), Aditha Karikalan (Vikram), and others. The audacity with which each frame has been filmed is jaw-dropping, and Ravi Varman’s exquisite cinematography ferrets the depths of every scene to evocatively glide us into that era. All production aspects are top-notch, and though there are no picturised songs, the massive sweep of the story necessitates that they play in the background, as the soundtrack (A.R. Rahman) is interwoven ever so deftly into the narrative that it magnifies the visual content in a striking manner.

In 1997, Mani Ratnam had ‘Iruvar’, his first foray into the historical/period genre, that opened to disappointingly empty halls. In the film, debutante Aishwarya Rai played the role of Jayaram Jayalalitha along with Mohanlal and Prakash Raj. Touted as a ‘biopic’ of the actor and politician Jayalalitha, it was a colossal flop at the box office but went on to be hailed as a classic in later years. With ‘Iruvar,’ the symbiotic relationship between Ratnam and Rai began, their association giving the actor some of her finest films in her career. Apart from Ratnam, it is only Sanjay Leela Bhansali with ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ (1999) and ‘Devdas’ (2002) and Rajeev Menon's ‘Kandukondein Kandukondein’ (2000) with whom Rai has delivered knockout performances; otherwise, her Hindi filmography is increasingly populated with inane projects that failed to do her justice, though a few did hit the box office bulls-eye. That Aishwarya Rai outdoes herself in ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’ is an understatement; there is cinematic magic as Ratnam strokes a performance that is easily her best. Critics may point to major deviations from the original book, the enormous length of the film, or even the tame ending as Ponniyin Selvan unselfishly hands over the reins of the Chola Kingdom to his uncle Madhurantakan (Rahman), but these seemingly drown as Ratnam asks us to invest in the genius of his craft, which we unfailingly do.

The original Tamil version of ‘Ponniyin Selvan 2’ begins with a ‘whistle podu’ moment as the opening credits thank Kamal Haasan as he delivers a deep, low, guttural introductory voiceover as the story begins. The ‘thank you’ may also be for Haasan’s role in an impending project with Mani Ratnam in the here and now, as the director packs up and hauls himself into his pod, time travelling way back into the present after having lived and breathed with the Cholas for so many years.

Anand Mathew is a social development consultant based in New Delhi. 

The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.