Comments on: Sujatha, Mani Ratnam and Ponniyin Selvan

By: R Gopu

R Gopu — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 15:15:10 +0000

A movie is more than just an adaptation of a novel. As wellset as Kalki’s epics are in the mindscape of Tamil readers, Tamil viewers have locked into “hero-oriented” and “mega-serial weepies”. If anyone were to make this movie, the mental atmosphere would have to be set first for a large audience to appreicate it. And considering the scale of the epic, it would require a mass audience for it to be economically viable. Like the Sivaji starring Hindu epics from Thiruvilaiyaadal thru Kandhan Karunai and Thirumaal perumai, other movies of a similar nature would have to be made first to adapt the audience mindset to watch PS or even Sivakaamyin Sabatham.

While artistic interest may be there among a section of the public, will the wider base watch it? Mani, Shankar, Rajni, Kamal etc. take big pay packets – would they agree to sharing the pie? Our actors are dancing in front of yellow buses in Munich and blue trams in Belgium with MTV steps and ridiculous costumes – it’s pure nostalgia to expect Thevaram and Prabandham songs to click suddenly.

By: Sutharsan

Sutharsan — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 17:49:57 +0000

MY opinion is that PONNIYIN SELVAN is a long story hence making it as a mega tv serial is the only way of justifying the whole story.Instead KALKI’s other novel SIVAGAMIYIN SABATHAM can be an alternative to make a movie, it has lot of interesting sequences to portray on the large screen(like fight sequences of TROY-the english movie).Also the climax is heart touching,so go for SS instead of PS.
sutharsan

By: anonymous_mani_fan

anonymous_mani_fan — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:44:55 +0000

On the surface, Sujata’s comments about various talents coming together to make this happen reminds me of the movie Gandhi where famous Indian directors (Govind Nihalani, for one) worked as second directors to Attenborough to shoot the movie.
However, on second thought, it is ridiculous to think that just throwing more bodies at this would somehow make it work. Please tell me how an “Ilayaraja-ARR combo” adds anything more than just having one composer or a “mani-shankar combo” adds more than just having Mani as the director? Mani is quite capable of handling this movie by himself.

By: Hari

Hari — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:30:00 +0000

vikatan’s contents were free until recently. During that time it would have been ok to reproduce the contents of their site. (as long as the content is attributed to them.) But now, their contents are wrapped in a dollar bill. Meaning they want only paid customers to set eye on their content.

LG, Hopefully you and your readers have taken this in the right spirit.

By: Krishna

Krishna — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 11:12:05 +0000

By the way…who do you think killed Adithya Karikalan..was it Nandhini or Pazhuvettarayar or Manimekalai or Did he kill himself?

By: Krishna

Krishna — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 11:08:22 +0000

I totally agree with splitting ponniyin selvan in to 2-3 parts rather than making it into a single movie.
Although, I do not agree with the idea of kamal playing Periya Pazhivettarayar. It is not because, he cannot perform the role…He can take any character and play it to perfection. But, his physique does not fit the descriptions of both the pazhuvettarayars in the book. I have always imagined someone like the veteran actor Ranga Rao to play the role of periya pazhuvettarayar.

By: Ravages

Ravages — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:55:09 +0000

But the film needn’t be all 5 books in one. If you ask me, there’s a tremendous scope to do a LOTR trilogy kind of movie – 5 books, 4 movies.

I would love to see Kamal Hassan as periya pazhuvetarayar. A villain, but with a good heart, complex character, and finally, killing himself…he might take it to the next level.

By: thennavan

thennavan — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 01:21:01 +0000

Guru, didn't know if you saw this: http://chennailiving.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-first-meeting-with-sujatha.html

By: Lazy Geek

Lazy Geek — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:52:53 +0000

Anti, Thanks. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for years and we have this puritans of copyrights commenting. I took out not fearing the reaction but to make a full length blogpost on how copyrights have been followed/screwed in the world of internet.

You’ve to be a victim of something to react. against it. Thats exactly I’m trying to do !!

By: aNTi

aNTi — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 20:46:50 +0000

Keerthi, if u notice, LG *has* attributed source to Ananda Vikatan. And that is a perfectly acceptable way of using a source. When I put up a live scoreboard on my blog, showing live scores from all cricket matches, all that Cricinfo wanted me (spoke to someone who worked there) to do was to include text/link that it is sourced from them.
It is not as if LG’s passing on his paid membership account to others. If u gotta read the whole peice, you still had to log on to AaVi. So I think LG is in the clear!