Just finished watching PS-2 and I have no hesitation in calling it a complete triumph for Maniratnam! The true hero of this movie IMHO is Jeyamohan. The screenplay was flawless. He managed to condense 3 books into a 3 hours movie and still hit all the major plot points. I know the movie took a lot of liberty with the books and I am completely fine with that. I am a hardcore fan of the books but this movie still has a place in my heart. It is like seeing many different adaptations of Shakespearean plays. I have seen so many versions of Henry V and have read it and these days I watch to see how each director/actor makes it their own (if interested just see the Crispin Day speech as delivered by Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Rylance). So in that sense this movie will stand as a terrific adaptation of the novels and I always have the novels when I want the whole thing.
The major deviations (without spoilers) are as follows:
- Who killed Karikalan - Made very explicit in the movie while the book tries to keep everyone guessing until the very end
- Who is Nandini's father - Once again the movie gives a very clear answer while the book leaves it a bit more open.
- Manimekalai - She is completely cut out of the movie. Some people love her character. I never did, so it was not a huge loss for me.
- Senthan Amudhan's story arc and its intersection with Mathuranthaka Devar's - this would have made the movie even longer. While this was a nice twist in a serialized novel it would have been too much for a movie and frankly Kalki himself was riffing a bit too much on this character in his novels.
Full points for the following:
- ARR's background score - while the movie deserves peak Illayaraja, PS-2 was much much better than PS-1 in terms of the background score
- Nandini Vs Karikalan scene - Aishwarya Rai and Vikram at their best
- Visuals - stunning with all the nods to the book at the right places; the secret chamber from which Vanthiyadevan sees the Nandini/Karikalan interaction was beautifully done, so was the monastery scenes, and the escape from Lanka on the boat.
- Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Jeyam Ravi would one day play Rajaraja!! But for 3 hours I believed he was.
Minor quibbles
- Sound editing could be improved but this is a problem with most movies including Hollywood. The fight scenes are just too loud
- Parthibendran - that guy can't act and probably had the worst diction
- I didn't like any of the songs in PS-2 except for Shankar Mahadevan's Veera. The songs didn't add to/ take away from the movie, but having a good album associated with the movie would have been nice
Overall, very pleased with PS-2 and will watch it again when it gets released on Prime. Our family enjoyed it a lot and it was a terrific mother's day gift for me!
