This Week: Regional Epics of South Asia - PONNIYIN SELVAN, THE LEGEND OF MAULA JATT, and KANTARA

Overview:
Ponniyin Selvan: Part One - Recommended
The Legend of Maula Jatt - Not Recommended
Kantara - Recommended

Ponniyin Selvan: Part One

India (Tamil language), 2022, d. Mani Ratnam, 2h47m, In theaters now

Ponniyin Selvan is a seminal work of Tamil literature. Now collected in 5 volumes and totaling over 2,000 pages, it was originally published as a serial from 1951-1954. A pulpy, fictionalized historical adventure epic, it covers a pivotal period in the history of the Chola dynasty 1,000 years ago. A new 2-part adaptation for the big screen is one of the biggest budget Indian releases of the year, and both parts were filmed simultaneously:

I only mention this to contextualize that this movie looks incredible, on a fraction of a Hollywood budget. It is an empire-spanning historical epic with high-quality cinematography and production design, by a major movie director whose beloved works span 4 decades.

While "PS-1" starts with the spectacle of a castle siege featuring elephants and trebuchets, the rest of the story unfolds from the point-of-view of the bumbling but charming (fictional) adventurer Vandiyathevan, who finds himself an unlikely spy in a conspiracy against the current king of the Cholas. As he meets a series of impossibly beautiful princesses, they each send him on their own missions, and he eagerly obeys them all, seemingly unaware that they are rivals.

Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) and Kundavai (Trisha Krishnan) are both extremely fascinating characters, knowing how to twist their men - the supposed political leaders in this empire - around their little fingers, although they go about for vastly different reasons. Apart from them, even the more minor characters in this movie are vibrantly drawn - perhaps because they are beloved characters in the source material - and this goes a long way towards keeping this story from getting too complicated.

It still got away from me partly. Watching this video afterwards (which helpfully uses photos of the actors), made me realize that I had confused and conflated a few characters. Despite this the first 2 hours of Ponniyin Selvan: Part One are a total blast, injecting a massive amount of exposition with enough humor and misadventure to be a joy.

The only mark against the movie is that the final hour shifts its focus to a new storyline that feels all too much like a new Act One. Because in the grand scheme of this story - it is, I believe, "Volume 2" of the 5-part epic - it is just set-up for the next act. PS-1 ends very abruptly, after a flashy set-piece on a ship during a fierce storm, which while impressive, did not feel like it had meaningful stakes. It felt like "the most famous scene from that book you love". This story might have worked better as a trilogy of 2-hour movies, however antithetical that might be to Indian audiences' desire for long-format "event cinema".

Still, I look forward to how PS-2 will continue this story, which I gather includes the maturation of Vandiyathevan from a quixotic adventurer into a more thoughtful hero.

And I've downloaded an English translation of Ponniyin Selvan to my Kindle so I can get to know these characters better. I think that is high praise for any adaptation of a beloved work.

Other Note: As the Chola dynasty erected many of the most prized historical landmarks in Tamil Nadu, the book Ponniyin Selvan is the basis for many tours of the state.

The Legend of Maula Jatt

Pakistan (Punjabi language), 2022, d. Bilal Lashari, 2h33m, In theaters now

While The Legend of Maula Jatt seems more modestly budgeted at $50 crore Rupees ($6 million), it is reportedly the biggest budget Pakistani film to date. While not as elaborate as Ponniyin Selvan, the production design here is also transportive, and creates a vivid portrayal of a more rural version of pre-colonial South Asia.

Despite its title, The Legend of Maula Jatt does not in any way attempt to be an epic. Based on a hit 1979 movie titled simply Maula Jatt, it is the story of a fearless and rage-filled gladiator who eventually learns the truth of how he was orphaned and takes revenge, with his favored weapon the gandasa - like a pole axe, but apparently meant to be a Punjab farming implement.

The villainous Natt clan in this movie operates a lot like the Italian mafia family of movies. They extort local villagers for protection money, and retreat to their castle where they argue over the line of succession based on who is the scariest and most murderous of their band. With their black-clad ninja-like assassins, they also remind me of the fabled Hashishans of Persia - one of the most psychotic of the Natts gets high on the fumes of burning venomous scorpions before he goes on his rampages of rape and killing.

Although there are highlights among the cast, every character in this movie is a bit of a one-dimensional cartoon. When the action starts, the choreography of gandasa on other medieval weapons is satisfying and strikingly gory. But from a story standpoint, this is a vicious and unsatisfying watch. Rape is disconcertingly omnipresent and used as much of a threat to the men who value their women's purity as to the actual victims.

And our hero's trauma seems to be the source of superpowers. There is an interesting subplot involving his adoptive mother, and what that relationship means to him, but he basically disregards her at the end of the movie. And for that, I wonder, what was the point of all this? With unredeemable villains, and the only losses to Maula coming by his inaction, revenge (by killing) is fully justified and glorified by this naive script.

Kantara

India (Kannada language), 2022, d. Rishab Shetty, 2h28m, In theaters now

On a more typical, modest budget of just 16 crore Rs ($2 million), the Karnatakan hit movie Kantara ("Mystical Forest") is every bit as vibrant and many times more energetic as either of the other two movies listed here.

Set in a rural village in present day, Kantara is the story of ancient regional traditions in conflict with India as a modernized, unified state. A new forest ranger has come to the village of Keradi to make sure that the government's protections of the local forest and wildlife are heeded. But the villagers depend on hunting and logging to survive and are too stubborn to even entertain ideas of compromise.

Two major cultural institutions of southwest India are prominently shown in Kantara. One is Kambala, a race where the participants grab two water buffalos by their tails and balance precariously on the axle where a plow would normally be mounted, as the animals barrel through the foot-deep waters of a rice paddy.

The other is Bhoota Kola, an all-night ritual of dancing and offerings, where a shaman-like member of the village - who has dedicated his life to this annual performance - dons make-up and an elaborate costume and becomes possessed by the village's guardian demigod. Bhoota Kola features in both the prologue and the intense, action-packed climax of Kantara, and makes you believe in the power of this fantastical spirit channeling.

The hero of the movie (played by the director Rishab Shetty) starts out a deadbeat who is somewhat unlikeable. But in this script, most of the characters reveal themselves to be a lot more than they first appear to be. While the middle of the film takes a little more time than it needs to get to where it's going, the propulsive editing of Kantara make its first and last hours a dazzling and breathless experience that should be experienced loud and in the theater.