Time is ripe for a Ponniyin Selvan movie, says author Sumeetha Manikandan

Author Sumeetha Manikandan

Would you want your books to be adapted into cinema? Yes or no and why?

Now who wouldn’t want their books to be adapted into movies! Many attempts have been made to make Ponniyin Selvan into a movie. The first attempt was by our own illustrious Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran in 1958, when he was still acting in the movies. It got shelved due to financial reasons. Next attempt was by ace director Maniratnam, in 2012, but even he couldn’t get it off the floors due to budget constraints.

However, seeing films like Bahubali gives me hope that someday, a director of the same caliber might be able to pull it off. It would be awesome to see our favourite characters from Ponniyin Selvan on the screen. I hope someone does it soon enough. I am a part of multiple Ponniyin Selvan groups on Facebook and Google Plus and most discussions will inevitable end with who should play your favourite characters. There are thousands of people out of there in these groups posting polls and opinions as to who should play Vandiya Devan, Arul Mozhi Varman, Karikalan or Kundavai. After watching Bahubali, many imagined Sathyaraj as Periya Pazhuvetarayar and Anushka as Nandini and so on…

Earlier, the length of the novel was a deterrent to screen writers and it is impossible to condense the entire story of Ponniyin Selvan into one movie. That and the fact that one needs a huge budget to film an epic of this proportion deterred many filmmakers from taking this up. But now the time is ripe. People do flock to the theatres to see movies even with a cliff-hanger ending. Harry Potter series came up to eight movies while Lord of the Rings came with three. Our own Bahubali came out as two movies. I am sure the audience would have gone, even if there were a third movie in the making.

This is surely the right time to make a Ponniyin Selvan movie(s). I hope someone takes note soon enough.

About the Author

Sumeetha Manikandan is a top bestselling romance author whose novellas ‘Perfect Groom’ and ‘These Lines of Mehendi’ (which was published as a paperback novel called ‘Love Again’) have been on the top of Amazon India charts ever since its publication. A bookaholic, thinker, feminist and a daydreamer, she reads across genres and is a crazy fan of history, romance and science fiction novels.

An avid reader of historical novels, she has been translating Kalki Krishnamurthy’s classic Tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan for the past ten years and hopes to translate more of his novels to English.

Sumeetha is married to filmmaker K.S. Manikandan and lives with her nine-year- old daughter in Chennai.

Click here to know more about her book Ponni's Beloved

'Ponniyin Selvan for Today’s Generation' by Sumeetha Manikandan

Author Sumeetha Manikandan

Your translation of the evergreen Tamil epic is generating rave reviews. Your take on the need for translating vernacular epics and to which demographics do you think the works of translation cater the most and why?

I have been asked this question many times. Ponniyin Selvan has been translated so many times why would you want translate such a well-known novel?

Die-hard fans of this classic will not read anything other than the original and I can understand why. Much is lost in translation. Unlike the other historical novels that have been written in Tamil, Ponniyin Selvan stands apart basically because of Kalki Krishnamurthy’s language, passion for history and most important of all… humour. The thread of humour that runs all through the novel makes it all the more memorable for its readers. That’s another reason why it is so tough to translate. Epic characters like Vandiya Devan (hero and protagonist), professional spy Azhwarkadiyan (whose entry and dialogues never fails to elicit laughter), gutsy and brave boat girl Poonguzhali who braves the stormy seas, intelligent and witty Kundavai who valiantly tries to steer the Kingdom away from danger and seductive Nandini whose beauty is beyond our imagination.

Coming back to the question of why a translation is needed….

It is needed today because today’s generation has become a tad too lazy to read vernacular novels. They would rather read it in English and if they really like it, they might pick up the original. Another aspect of this is the fact that many youngsters of Tamil heritage who live abroad do not have the opportunity to learn the language. They might converse in it but they can’t read and write in Tamil.

A few months after I started publishing this translation I got a mail from an old gentleman in Mylapore who loved to read Ponniyin Selvan. He was asking my permission to share the links on Wattsapp and Messenger with his grandchildren in US because they didn’t know to read Tamil.

That’s why we need a translation. There is a huge cache of great historical novels written in Tamil by many popular authors. All of these novels need to be translated or else they might be lost of posterity.

About the Author

Sumeetha Manikandan is a top bestselling romance author whose novellas ‘Perfect Groom’ and ‘These Lines of Mehendi’ (which was published as a paperback novel called ‘Love Again’) have been on the top of Amazon India charts ever since its publication. A bookaholic, thinker, feminist and a daydreamer, she reads across genres and is a crazy fan of history, romance and science fiction novels.

 

An avid reader of historical novels, she has been translating Kalki Krishnamurthy’s classic Tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan for the past ten years and hopes to translate more of his novels to English.

 

Sumeetha is married to filmmaker K.S. Manikandan and lives with her nine-year- old daughter in Chennai.

Her book 'Ponni's Beloved: An English translation of Kalki  Krishnamurthy's Ponniyin Selvan' is available at:

Amazon.com                    Amazon.in                    Amazon.co.uk