Gloss, glitter, and gleam less story telling

Gloss, glitter, and gleam less story telling: My quick take on Mani Ratnam's “PS-1”

The movie is majestically mounted on a huge canvas with rich production value, with meticulously designed VFX and monumental sets, adding majesty to the illustrious dynasty of Cholas who ruled us for more than 1000 years. The costumes and rich jewelry designed for various characters, and, of course, the pretty faces that adorned these jewelries, were simply divine. Ravi Varman’s cinematography deserves a special mention for literally transporting us to the "glorious Chola period" of our history. Unfortunately, the visual gloss and glitter are not complimented by Mani Ratnam’s story-telling technique.

After spending nearly 3 hours in the IMAX theater, my mind was more clouded with questions than with clarity. It is advocated that a good story should have very few “key” characters in it, while PS-1 is nothing but a jamboree of various characters getting introduced throughout the length of the movie. You will be surprised to see that the character with the titular role of Ponniyin Selvan (Jayram Ravi) is introduced in the latter half of the movie, and Vikram (whose face is prominently flashed in all the posters and trailers) has very limited scenes in this part. It is the effervescent Karti who steals the show with his fantastic performance (he is good in action, dance and has good comic timing). There are many characters in the movie. If I start listing them, my take will also become listless like the movie. However, I have to mention the beautiful female cast, wherein Aishwarya Rai leads the pack. She is simply “angelic”. The cinematographer has captured her beautiful face with the best of lighting and camera angles. So are Trishna, Shobita, and the other girls who end up increasing the glam quotient of the movie. It looks like in assembling this impressive ensemble of stars, the director somehow compromised on the main thread of the story, because in my view, neither the character got established nor the plot got any impetus.

My bewilderment was exacerbated by the excessive number of parallel tracks. No doubt it is a herculean task to create an entertaining concoction of Kalki’s 5 volume story (which in my view has enough masala to create a bigger blockbuster series than Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings). This is where the writing team of Mani Ratnam could have improved. But for the last 30 mins of impressive climax, it seems the entire part 1 is utilized to setup the story and maybe in part 2, the real Dhamaka will happen (but will the audience have patience till the release of PS-2)?

Apart from the overall aesthetics and production value, one more thing that impressed me was the innovative choreography of all its songs. Even though the Modern Mozart AR’s scores are not that impressive, it is the wonderful choreography that has enhanced the presentation. However, the action choreography in battle scenes is very amateurish (this is where Rajamouli scores over all other movie makers).

On the performance front, it's been the Karti show all along, but for the first time I loved the performance of the world’s most beautiful lady, Aishwarya Rai (maybe because she avoided ludicrous giggling for this role). She is the real showstopper in PS-1, and might be a pivotal character in PS-2 too.

My spontaneous reaction after watching the movie was “I should have read the Kalki books before watching the movie, enabling me to comprehend it better," but then I realized that I had not read George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” and yet I enjoyed Game of Thrones. Similarly, I had not read Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and it did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying it.

If you want to enjoy an IMAX experience, then watch it as the movie is tailored for wide-screen viewing or wait for its streaming partner (Amazon) to stream it soon.