Ponniyin Selvan: Part I (2022)

This is a cracking historical epic worthy of anything that ever came out of Hollywood. It all centres around the intrigues and plotting over the succession to the Chozha throne in 10th century India. It transpires that the current emperor "Sundara" (Prakash Raj) came to the throne because the rightful successor was too young. Many years on, this ageing gent has nominated his own son "Karikalan" (Vikram) to succeed him, but there are growing murmurings amongst his nobility that the succession ought revert back to the original line. The Prince's confidente, "Vandiyadevan" (Karthi), is charged by the prince to garner as much intelligence as he can and deliver it to his Imperial father - a rather dangerous and perilous mission as he finds himself constantly (and energetically) jumping from frying pan to fire, unsure who to trust. What now ensues is really well paced and enjoyable. It mixed the fun elements of films like 'Prince of Persia" (2010) with then grand scale battle scenarios of something like "Marrakar" (2021) with an host of glamorous and exquisitely dressed characters to keep the pot well and truly boiling. Aishwarya ("Nandini") and Trisha Krishnan ("Kundavai") also prove that the men folks are, frequently, being cleverly manipulated by their shrewd and intelligent spouses. I can't say the musical numbers always worked though. At their best, the expertly choreographed performances served the story well - illustrating just how important celebration was in convincing the populace that all was well. At times, though, they are a bit extended and can serve to disrupt the pace of this otherwise quite intricately constructed exercise in court-craft, betraya and seduction that has quite a bit of humour too. Stylish and glorious to look at (even if the visual effects are not always the best), this is entertaining and at just shy of three hours, it flew by remarkably quickly. It's also the first time in a long time that I've heard a cinema audience cheer the stars as they charismatically own the screen. I enjoyed this - though I'm not quite sure what part two can behold....