Review: Ponnar Shankar

As i start to write the first thing that comes to mind - "Why did i go to this movie, spending what is almost half my daily wage?" The Answer comes pronto: "The story is about two characters who are revered as demi-gods in Kongu Nadu Area - (supposedly present day Coimbatore - Trichy Belt). A lot of learning to be had from there - 1.History 2. Character of two people who turn out to be Today's Gods 3. Story and Screen play writing 4. The ability in contemporary Tamil cinema to picturise a war based novel."

Direction: Thiagarajan: Good job. Firstly the director has to be given credit for concieving the film. (If at all such conception is on own volition and not through coercion). Though Thiagarajan is no Peter Jackson, he manages to set a precedent for making war based movies even before aspirants like Kamal (Kamal should realise by now that technology is here, CGI my friend is the answer to your problem my friend, if the problem is lack of funds, for your dream movie). For this alone he deserves huge credit. But even a good director can be let down by the gross mediocrity of the story and characterisation.

Story, Screen Play and Dialogue: Current Tamil Nadu CM Mr. M Karunanidhi: Guess what, the story turned out to be a rip off (as distinct from the word Inspiration) of a lot of themes from the Mahabharath. I find it hard to believe that the same outline of events in the Mahabharath happened in the case of Ponnar Shankar. A man acquainted with even the basic themes of the Mahabharath can see right through the veil of purported "intelligent story telling" spun by Mr MK. Not only does Mr MK do that, Mr MK also manages to play his farce of criticising anything remotely to do with Hindu Culture. And he is quite willing to this in the midst of writing a story that is naught but a rip off of the Mahabharath which is the corner stone of the Hindu Tradition. Does he think that the people as so stupid not to note the contradiction? And having ripped off a major chunk of the Mahabharath story, he still manages to reduce it to mediocrity - Good job. The biggest let down of this film is the Story.

Cast(sic): Prasanth excels. The sheer intensity of his expressions convey the plethora of emotions right from valor, anger, romance, pain and delight, and brings the two protagonist chararcters to life. He carries the movie on his shoulders through his meagre presence. Imagine his first credible dialogue comes in the second half!! still you could not miss his presence in the first. He stands out as the biggest strength of the movie. Kushboo and Jayaram again play their parts assigned to them very well, so do sneha, nasser, vijaykumar, ponvannan, riaz khan, raj kiran. But such a lot of talent could have been used a lot better and would have made a greater impact if again (yes again) their characters were either better defined / or are not mere rip offs from The Mahabarath. Again the story teller to be blamed.

Support: The CGI work handled again by Prasanth, shows that Tamil Cinema has arrived. I cannot wait to see the day when the two greatest epics of this country are brought on screen. Prasanth once again hats off man, great job. You will be remembered as a trend setter of sorts. But next time avoid ripping off sequences from the LOTR, Troy, 300 etc or other related movies of the genre being made.

Ilayaraja needless to say stands up again to the occasion, through his great songs. His RR does justice only to the extent that the story does justice.

The Art Director - (Muthuraj?) of the movie deserves the greatest reward in filmdom for the sets put up. The Cinematography (Shaji Kumar) was excellent

In the end did i really learn, what i set out to learn. 1. A flawed hi"story" was told. 2. Characters were learnt, but that was incidental. 3. I learnt how not to write a story. 4. Ah yes, But one good thing - Tamil Cinema has arrived.

Ponnar Shankar deserves a watch for the sheer work put in by Prasanth and his dad and the cast and support staff, and if history based cinema is to be encouraged.