Sunday WatchAlong: Ponniyin Selvan 1! 7am Chicago Time on Prime!

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Happy Sunday! I am so excited to watch this with you, I’m even willing to wake up super early.

Ponniyin Selvan! I HIGHLY recommend reading my spoiler summary before/while watching it. It is supes complicated.

At 7am Chicago time, I will be putting up a “And PLAY” comment and we will all comment along from there.

237 thoughts on “Sunday WatchAlong: Ponniyin Selvan 1! 7am Chicago Time on Prime!”

  2. Pingback: Sunday WatchAlong: Ponniyin Selvan 1! 7am Chicago Time on Prime! – Bollywood News

  5. Prime is warning me that it is 13+ for violence. Really? It’s all swordfights, somehow that doesn’t feel as violent

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  8. Okay, so we’ve got a king with three kids. POldest is a violent brilliant warrior, middle is a political genius princess, youngest is beloved of the people.

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  9. I miss maps. I love this movie, but I would love it more if they put a map onscreen so I could figure out where they heck we where.

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  11. Okat, this is important for future. Dude who was briefly fighting back to back with Vikram is our protagonist. We are going to see him be a trickster and a talker for the next two hours, so we need to know that he’s also a fearless brilliant warrior he is just smart enough to talk instead of fight.

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  13. SPOILER: this dude won’t show up again for the rest of this movie, but appears late late late in the next movie. Don’t worry about him.

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  15. Karthi is so so cute with those flowers in his hair. Also, Vandiyadevan is so Bi-coded in this film along with Arunzhmozi (and book btw, Margaret, you will love book 4 for a surprise character) that it is a hoot to see how he essentially is buddies with three siblings while just hopping along being a cutie little spy.

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    • Ye olde time of writing for magazines to get the money, I think. Victor Hugo is famous for wording too many words and needing an editor, I suspect Kalki had the same in the 1950s to keep this series going for as long as he could

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  19. Oooooo, look at the irrigation systems!!!!!! I have to say, the book is written well enough that I am actually excited to see this part on the Big Screen.

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  21. Kirre just mad the point about it being written for a magazine. Picking up on that, there are SO MANY plot changes book to movie. Most of them along the lines of cleaning up narrative that was written in serial form and figured out as it went along.

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  23. 1950s India messaging! And also interesting history. Apparently in this era, “Vishnu worship” was a new and rapidly growing religion and lead to lots of violent quarrels between Vishnu and Shiva followers. And yet, people can still be friends….

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      • Authentically no Muslims or Christians yet, but the point is made, all religions can live in harmony/should live in harmony.

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    • Interesting. I always knew Mahadeva/Shiva was worshiped more prevalently in the south and way north but didn’t know about the rapidly growing era of Vishnu worship.

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      • It made sense to me when I thought about it, because it’s just human nature to look for new religions/Gods. So of course there would have been a lot of variations of Hinduism that hated each other.

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  26. When I watched PS 2 with a friend recently, we got into an armor debate. Is it better to wear metal armor in the super heavy immoveable way it would be in this era, or leather army so you can still move but can also be pierced? I vote, still able to move and wear leather.

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  28. Y’all ready for some complicated inheritance backstory????? I think I got it from reading the book. Old king didn’t have kids so made his younger brother crown prince. Old king retired to a temple and younger brother became king and made his son crown prince. Then, SURPRISE, Old King has a late in life baby. Everyone agrees it doesn’t make sense to change the established inheritance line because of this baby, baby is raised in the temple and intended to be a wise holy man. BUT NOW, baby is grown up and is all “hey, I want my kingdom”. And these chieftains are meeting in secret to argue that baby should be made Crown Prince before Current King dies, instead of Vikram the current Crown Prince. Also, they don’t like Vikram.

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  30. This is clearly setting up to show that the women are the brains and strategy, right? I.e. the saying “the men may act as the head but the women are the neck and can turn the head any way she pleases”

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  31. Apparently, Kalki was inspired by the Three Musketeers for the three men characters in the book (Vandiyadevan, Arunmozhi, Aditha) and seeing how this film handles them, you can definitely feel the influence of Dumas for this story with its plots on plots and interesting side characters

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  32. Still patiently waiting for Rahman to release the OST Background Music for both PS films because I NEED to listen to so many of them on repeat…he promised when PS 2 hit 100 days, so I am counting on his word, because the people (on Twitter) demand it

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  33. They cut the part of this scene that I found most interesting from the book. The big cheiftain argument related to colonialism. The current royal family wants to take the grain stores from home and send them overseas to Lanka to help the army there and pay back the people for the devastation of the war. The chieftains feel like the grain stores should only be used for people on the mainland, not for the far reaches of the empire. The Treasurer of the Empire is the one leading the rebellion and makes all his arguments based on how the treasury should be used, at home or abroad.

    I see why they cut it from the movie, because boring to watch! But really interesting basis for the rebellion, I think.

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    • I was just talking about this last week when we watched Jeans! She doesn’t have the same unworldly beauty she had when she was young, but she has so much more presence and confidence onscreen now!

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  37. Okay, flower seller, in the books he turns out to be a Secret Prince. Which they cut from the movie entirely, but kept his character as a really nice sweet flower seller who helps our hero. It’s a little strange that the character is still there but his biggest character moment is missing.

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  38. Okay, so this is Aish’s husband’s little brother. Her husband is the Treasurer and super powerful and leading the rebellion. The Little Brother is the head of security for the royal fort. He’s just trying to do his dang job, and also be loyal to big bro. The rebellion is still loyal to the current king, they just want to swap around who the heir is after the very ill king dies. So he is sincerely trying to keep the royal fort secure, while also keep messages from the King’s sons from reaching him.

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  39. Oh, the other thing in the book that comes up in the Chieftain convo! The king “listens too much to women”. He keeps his wife and daughter in the royal chamber and asks their advice on everything. Which is a fun little opposite feminist message. If the Bad People are against women in power, therefore the Good PEople must be for it. Plus, you’ve got the Queen and Princess publicly giving advice and being respected, versus Aish working in secret with flirtations and beauty and sex. It’s all female power in different ways.

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  45. This bit is actually book accurate. He goes running away while being takent hrough the streets. And then we get this little detour into talking about ancient Chola architecture.

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    • Ok, that seals it. Kalki might have had inspiration from Dumas, but his writing detours on architecture definitely categorize him as the Indian Victor Hugo just so that he can put his research in his work

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  47. Love Aish’s whole look, hair loose, soft flowing clothes, very natural wild feminine. Also love that we don’t even see our hero think about his lies, they just flow out without effort.

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  49. In the first meeting between Aish and her husband in the book, we learn that they still haven’t had sex. It’s been two years, but she keeps saying it’s an inauspicious time, she needs to fast, blah blah blah. Another way she keeps such strong control of him.

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    • That’s the one thing I wish they hadn’t cast Aish for this role. You miss that “whoa, you are TOO YOUNG for this dude” reaction that everyone in the book always has when first seeing her.

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