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.
dontcallitbollywood 
Fwippy Sword!!!! My favorite weapon!
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I know the actual name is Urumi. Because of the movie titled Urumi.
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Oh, the long stare and smiles!!! Karthi’s lip lick! And the bathing scene afterward…oh, the queer coding writes itself for these two so happily
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HORSES!!!!
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ELEPHANT!!!
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Okay, I love our hero as a character. He’s a trickster and a liar and a spy and a thief, but ultimately he is also loyal to the death to the Chola dynasty. And that’s the thing the Chola enemies never quite understand.
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Sorry, this is gonna be a mystery you don’t solve until movie 2. And I’m not gonna spoil it for you!
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Love the detail of how Kundavai has the small bun for casual family events, and then the big hairstyle for court or serious events, nice touch
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And never ever hair down. She’s too efficient and focused for that.
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Except when bathing though, that is the only time I think
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Trisha would be a way better Crown Prince than Vikram. The Chola People!!!! Think about them for once!
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Agreed!
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Sheesh, Vikram! Her life isn’t all about you! Maybe she made decisions unrelated to her feelings for you and you can’t blame her or yourself for them.
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He clearly cannot think beyond himself and his emotion at that moment! He should NOT be king.
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Okay, so now Lanka has the royal army that has been ordered by Aish to capture the prince and drag him home, the Pandya rebels who want to kill the prince, the Lankan army who want to kill the prince, and Mystery Elephant Lady and our Protagonist who want to save him. This island is getting crowded.
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Aish knows that all she has to do is call the prince and he will coming running to her, right?!
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Yes, that’s her plan for Older Prince, but for Younger Prince she needs to send the army.
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Again I repeat, gold is the STUPIDEST armor choice and the Lanka king deserves to lose his throne.
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It really is. It is the softest metal, it is easily pierceable and its heavy! Stupid stupid stooopid
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Lanka king is clearly about appearances over effectiveness.
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He’s just asking to be killed and have the gold off his back stolen!
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Ugh! Yet another stupid Dharma argument. I want a Hindu epic where a son goes “yeah, Dad’s wrong, I’m ignoring that”.
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I think Vikram kind of did that but he was too young and then too emotional.
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Never gonna happen!
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Oh, did you catch the line earlier about “my brother gave you his sword and told you to visit our sister?” And now these comments about turbans and crowns. The Bros totally know this is the guy for their sister.
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This is a little confusing. The prince is determined to give himself up to the prison ship because of stupid Dharma and following Dad’s orders. Everyone around him is determined to fight to keep him from being arrested. So the prince tricked our hero into trying on his clothes, and then ran off leaving everyone to think our hero is him who he rides an elephant to give himself up for capture. And it’s working in that the Pandya’s are about to try to kill our hero thinking he is the prince.
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By price you mean younger price, right? Sorry. The there are too many princes in this movie. It is very confusing.
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Yes, younger prince. Older Prince is in the north being all Emo and useless.
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Yes, but then there was the Sri Lankan prince and the flower guy who is a secret prince. AHHH too many princes.
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Except int he movie, flower guy ISN’T a secret prince, because Ratnam decided that was too complicated and dropped the whole storyline.
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How is the mud paint camouflage staying on after they were in the water?!
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Goddess Kali probably
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Makes sense with all the Shiva references. She is Shiva’s wife in her most ferocious form!
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Urgh, I hate underwater ambushes. So sneaky and creepy!
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I guess another group of Pandyas is waiting on the beach to take over the prison ship in case the first group fails to kill the prince before he reaches the ship?
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The younger prince is gonna give himself up to save our hero??? I like that decision for him as a person, but it’s the kind of stupid short sighted move Trisha would never do. Very bad thing to do as a royal.
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More proof that Trisha should be the next ruler of the kingdom!
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Yeah, Trisha would totally sacrifice anyone and anything for the greater good of the Cholas.
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I just figured out how we can tell the Pandyas apart from everyone else! They are the only ones who never wear shirts. Phew, that makes life easier.
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Oh, look Vandiyadevan crossing the most dangerous waters for someone…
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Yes, you can read it both as friendship and queer, the acting choices and book canon kind of give that nice space to think both at the same time
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And if you are a Trisha-Vandiyadevan 4EVA person like me, you can read it as ultimately for Trisha since she is the one who ordered him to protect her baby bro
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I am on board with shipping Kundavai and Vandiadevan 4EVA!
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This is an awesome sea battle. Just in terms of filming a sea battle (which is really hard to do), this is very very well done.
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We definitely need to watch this again at night. This scene is so dark and our living room is BRIGHT! But I think it would be spectacular at night.
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Just a spectacular ending shot for Aish!! Truly the true heroine/hero of this whole story
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Yes Vikram… THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!!! He is such an emotional wreck!
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Meanwhile, Trisha even in the worst most vulnerable moment of her life is comforting someone else and being strong for them.
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Once again I praying that Rahman released the background music for these films asap!! I need them!!
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Speaking of music, KIRRE! I keep forgetting to tell you! My household watched all of Eurovision this year and are Cha Cha Cha diehards. Go Finland!
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Happy to hear!! We were ROBBED!! If this ends up changing the jury system, then it will be counted as a win, but history was made anyway. And so glad everyone loves the song!
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Thank you for this, Margaret!! Glad to once again have these. Happy Sunday everyone!
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Next week, part 2?
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Yes!
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We have a birthday party, one of the days, but I will let you know when I can and YESSS we need to watch it together!
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Silver haired Aishwarya!!! WOW! Okay, we have to watch PS2 as a watchalong too, right? I need all the context Margaret and Kirre are providing! It is so enriching!
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Understood, and therefore enjoyed, it a lot more this time! Thanks for all the extra information/summaries, Margaret and Kirre. 🙂
Have a great Sunday everyone!
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Yeah, I am inspired to finish the books now so I can understand Part 2 as deeply as Part 1!
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This was amazing. Thank you Margaret and Kirre for all the tidbits! Definitely a movie you need to pay attention to! Lily, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
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