No Tamil novel has been as celebrated and fondly remembered as Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan in the last century. This in spite of its size — running into a thousand pages — and the numerous characters that walk them. The fascination for the Chola prince, which accounted for its stupendous success when it was serialised has not waned, what with the epic story adapted to various forms, except perhaps celluloid. MGR wanted to make a film out of the story but various constraints, including finance, tied his hands. Director Maniratnam is said to have even decided the cast but gave up.
Kalki , the magazine of the celebrated author’s brainchild, has published the novel several times — once with the original illustrations by Maniam, later with the drawings of Vinu, again with the illustrations of Maniam’s son Maniam Selvan and recently by Veda. The market thrives with Ponniyin Selvan of all shapes.
Bombay Kannan, noted theatre personality came up with an audio book (Oli puththagam), several voices delivering the chaste Tamizh dialogue as writer Kalki had written. The descriptive parts also form the part of the reading. Here the CDs are three in number with volumes 1&2 and 3&4 in one CD each and segment 5 in one. It has music and rerecording done with great care to make the listening interesting. R.T. Chari, who encouraged Bombay Kannan in this endeavour to bring out the ‘Oli Puththagam,’ said that he enjoyed the production immensely, listening while travelling across the U.S.
English translations
The novel has also been translated into English by the fans of Kalki’s magnum opus. Recently, I came across the Kindle Edition of Ponniyin Selvan translated by Sumeetha Manikandan and published as Ponni’s Beloved by Indireads. There are three more translations, which include by H. Subhulakshmi Narayanan ( Son of Ponni ), C.V. Karthik Narayanan ( Trinity ), Pavithra Srinivasan (Westland) and Indra Neelameggham. There is also one titled Ponniyin Selvan Retelling by G. Chandramouli.
There are a couple of kindle editions of the novel in Tamil too. These offer free reading in Kindle unlimited. The most surprising is Ponniyin Selvan as comics (English and Tamizh) as well as pictorial presentation recently. These are available in Amazon.in and also in popular book stores.
There are no book fairs without the Ponniyin Selvan spread. Swaminathan of Vasantha Prasuram says that visitors still ask for Ponniyin Selvan and that’s why the scramble to make it available in so many forms.
At home, my mother, who loved historical novels, was never tired of reading Ponniyin Selvan . Even when she lost the vision in one eye, she kept revisiting some of her favourite portions. It was such fun to see her get so animated and emotional when someone asked her to say something about the novel.
Household names
I know that Vandiyathevan, Azhwarkadiyaan, Kundavai, Arulmozhi Varman, Aditha Karikalan, Nandini and the two Pazhuvettarayar Brothers, Kandamaran, Poonkuzhali, Sendan Amudan, Sundara Chozhar, Sembian Maadevi, Ravidasan are household names in many cases. Recently, I decided to check this out with readers of different age groups.
Sivakumar in his mid-twenties says that he had read Kalki’s Parthiban Kanavu and was impressed with it. He, of course, wants to read Ponniyin Selvan but the size is forbidding. But some day he will take the plunge because he has heard so much about it. Shyamala Ranganathan, a regular and reader of all popular Tamil authors for a long time says that she finished the volumes when she was in school. She did it in two days. “Just couldn’t put it down,” she recalls. She also recalls the wonderful experience she had while watching an action and emotion-packed scene staged from Ponniyin Sevlan during the Kalki Pavala Vizha celebrations.
Mohan Santhanam, a musician and book lover, started reading Ponniyin Selvan only when it was serialised in Kalki recently. He was spellbound by the author’s description about the places and events. He has collected them and is yet to complete the book.
According to V.R. Krishnan Kalki is a trend setter in writing historical fiction. He made it as interesting and engaging as the contemporary genre. He specifically points out that apart from its racy narration, the author mentions several places of worship, temples and the poets of those periods. He marvels at the way the characters of Nandini and her dubious allies have been woven into the main stream.
The attempt to stage the magnum opus was a huge success. Magic Lantern did it first during the centenary year of Kalki at the open air theatre of YMCA and later in 2014 and 2015 on stage with grand props and competent artistes. The show ran for five days, all of them to houseful audience.
Compilation of excerpts from the play and views of popular personalities from various fields is available in YouTube. There is another troupe, which stages the Ponniyin Selvan , TVK Cultural Academy being the auspices.
Having seen the perennial demand for Ponniyin Selvan , I look forward to the day when a 3D film is made. Sure, it would be a great challenge but will be a fitting tribute to a work, which has proved to be immortal, to use a cliché.
