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!”

  1. Okay, one thing I see. Nandani is a take on Nandi, who is Shiva’s vehicle where Nandi is personified as vigilant, strength, virility. But Nandi is also considered Shiva in animal form where it could be seen as vengeance and destruction.

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  2. Okay, this was way back at the opening credits, so in case you forgot, the last war was between the Cholas and the Pandyas and Vikram beheaded the PAndya king. Now, Pandya rebels are determined to get vengeance by killing the Chola royal family. And we have just learned Aish is working with the Pandya rebels.

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    • Pandya rebels are different people who want the big brother’s son to be the heir? Or more like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So the Big brother’s people are working with the Pandya rebels?

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      • Only Aish is working with PAndya rebels. It’s more that Aish is PAndya and hates the Chola,s so she married Old Dude and convinced him to start an internal rebellion in order to make things unstable so the Pandyas can more easily kill everyone.

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  6. There’s a bit about our hero’s friendship with flower seller that’s in the book. He is such a lier and trickster, and flower seller is so innocent and devout, at one point to escape guards he tells flower seller to lie and say he drowned. Flower seller says he can’t lie, so hero has to jump in the river and almost die so he can tell the guards the truth.

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  7. In the book, Sobhita is part of a humble powerless family who are loyal warriors but that’s it. However, Trisha is smart enough to realize that Sobhita is the PERFECT wife for her brother because she is sweet and loyal and kind, and who cares if she has no connections. So Trisha is keeping her close as her best friend and all the other richer and more connected ladies in waiting are jealous.

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  9. Also in book, they make clear that Trisha-the-princess has turned down hundreds of proposals and is not interested in marriage, because she wants/needs to stay home and serve the Chola empire. So this lowly soldier dude is kind of perfect for her, she doesn’t want to marry a king who will take her from home.

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  11. The book has this very lyrical description of these scene, about how magic and holy is the moment when two young people lock eyes and suddenly are in love. But I like the movie version just as well.

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    • I swear in the Aish Vikram scenes there are so many callbacks to Raavanan I will have to force you to see it at some point, just so you know how much it hurts. To see them together, while also crying for the fates of both characters so many times

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    • Yes! That’s a bif part of the inheritance debate, the parents decided when their son was a baby to remove themselves from the inheritance for the sake of stability of the empire. But now the baby is grown up and is angry that they took that decision for him.

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  16. I am sooooooooooooooooooooo glad they cast Trisha in this role!!!! If you aren’t South-Aware (not saying I am, but at least I know a little), she has been a star for two decades, is a brilliant actress, and in her personal life is in that “so old! I guess she would rather work than marry?” place. So the casting is perfect in so many many ways. Most importantly, she is skilled enough that she just needs a few moments onscreen to tell us everything abotu her character.

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  19. Also, I think Old White HAir Dude is the Queen Mother’s Father. Another Woman Power thing, it’s his maternal grandpa that mentors and stays with the crown prince.

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  22. Pingback: Sunday WatchAlong: Ponniyin Selvan 1! 7am Chicago Time on Prime! – News Hour 24/7

  23. I have sympathy for Vikram as Tragic Hero, but I also REALLY don’t think he should be Crown Prince. This dude is not stable enough to lead an Empire, even with Trisha helping him.

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  25. So fromt he Aish side, she’s a humble temple girl who was happily planning to be a nun, but then was romanced by the crown prince, which leads to her being banished from the temple, the kingdom, and her family by the royal family. She finds safety and love with a new person, who is then BEHEADED IN FRONT OF HER by the same dude who caused her to be banished from the temple. Is it any wonder she is dedicating her life to destroying the royal family?

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  27. I think there is a good argument to be made for both leather and iron on the battlefield, but gold is clearly Worst Choice. Lanka king is stupid.

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  29. Jayam Ravi, never even heard of the guy before this film, but after seeing him in PS, I do want to search more of his films. Just such a nice, sweet, teddy bear, almost Southern Arjun Kapoor kind of guy in real life

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  34. I love Prakash Raj in this role, because he’s such a great actor. But it’s also bad casting, because his character is supposed to be shockingly handsome, the most beautiful man ever in his youth and still attractive in old age.

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    • Definitely. I love Prakash Raj but he is not attractive. I could even see someone like Ashutosh Rana or someone like that. You need someone who can play a “hot dad” for this role.

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  35. Shobitha looks so effortlessly sexy in this movie. Aish is all sultry vengence, Trisha is all power and control. Shobitha is just a breath of fresh air!

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  37. Trisha is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Both the character and the actress. I love her using female power without using her beauty/sexuality

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  43. Aish looks other worldly in this movie. But for some reason in real life, recently, her face just looks a bit bloated. I swear it is her stupid hairstyle. She is still flawless and needs a better stylist/hair dresser!

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  44. Oooooo, Trisha sees what is happening! This is gonna get messy and misunderstanding-y. Unless our hero can get to the prince first and explain what is really happening and the true threat.

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  45. I showed husband the trailer of this movie yesterday and now he wants to watch it. I will have to watch it again with him and have him pull up the comments of this watch along so I don’t have to keep explaining everything.

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  46. Oh! Our hero has a row of metal rights along the middle of his armor! That’s smart, so a sidways sword swipe can’t get through with just that one row to stop it.

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  47. I just got to this part in the books, and our hero is so irritated that he came all the way to Lanka and is stuck traveling with this talkative Priest dude again.

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