Tamil Historical Novels

I am definitely not a person to write about the works of great great novelists... I should say that this blog is nothing but a small tribute to the great authors - about how they were able to imagine events, fit them into historical events and leave a lasting impression on the readers... If advertisements are a few mins fascination, a good movie has a impact for few days but a good book - leaves its impression for a long long time...

The following are the list of tamil 'Historical' novels that I have read (in the chronological order of my reading !! )

1. Ponninyin Selvan
2. Vengaiyin Maindhan
3. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
4. Parthiban Kanavu
5. Kayalvizhi

After reading these novels, I consider myself luck in one way - I didnt get the order wrong much... because in the order of events, the correct sequence is as follows

1. Sivagamiyin Sabadham
2. Parthiban Kanavu
3. Ponninyin Selvan
4. Vengaiyin Maindhan
5. Kayalvizhi

In this blog, I will only talk about the general outline of the story - definitely not about any of the twists or even hint about them and if it has to be made into a movie, who is the best fit ( if one is available )

1. Sivagimiyin Sabadham - The story of a great bharathanatyam dancer from Pallava Period. Kalki impresses a lot with his ability to create twists - the way Mahendra Pallava plans for his kingdom is amazing... The treats his people, the way he dreams about his kingdom, the way he delegates work and trains the next generation - perfect example for Valluvar's kural...
The link in the start of this para is a great one and explains all I have to say.... PS lovers, please excuse !! I personally feel that this is worth 102/100 wheras PS deserves 101/100 !!!

For the movie section - I am sorry.. I cannot find ppl for this from the current industry... So, I have to go back a bit in time and hope that this movie had been made 15 years back...

Mahendra Pallava - Sivaji Ganesan
Narashima Pallava - Kamalahasan
Paranjothi - Rajinikanth ( i didn't insert him into this movie because i am his fan.. After finishing the novel, you will feel that he fits into this ! )
Sivakami - Ramya Krishnan / Revathi ( Pls remember, I am talking abt 15 yrs back !!)
Naganandhi - Suggns Welcome !
Ayanar - Nagesh

2. Parthiban Kanavu - Pls Pls dont read this novel unless you have read SS. The primary reason being, this novel is like a sequel to SS. So, if you read this first, you will not be able to appreciate the subtle events referring to SS. If you think that Parthiban will be the hero of this novel, think again. Parthiba maharaja dies in the first chapter - the whole novel is how son goes about fulfilling his father's dream of estabilishing a chola empire.. After typing the above, I searched in net and found a link for parthiban kanavu and the link agrees with my opinion. ( Pls dont click on the link for SS in this site.. it tells the story of SS in short !! )

For actors, I can find people for this from contemprary movie
Vikraman - Surya
Kundhavai - Jo ( main reason for selection being presence of surya ;-)
The rest can be continuation from previous movie ;-)

3. Ponniyin Selvan - There have been loads and loads discussed about the great novel and I am sure that even hardcore Archer's fans will agree that this novel is greater than 'Kane and Abel'. The time frame is 300 years after period of Narashimma Pallavan. I will not discuss this as a movie - ( - with all due respect to the direcotrs / actors/ actress) because I am sure no director can make it into a movie - and we cannot find that many number of great actors / actress to reflect the characters in this movie.

4. Vengaiyin Maindhan - I am surprised.. When I searched Internet for this novel, I found only 4 pages and 2 of them were not relevant to this book... ( I shld say, I am even hurt !)... Akilan won the Sahitya academy award for this novell in 1963. This novel is also a beautiful one. With due respect to akilan and his writing style, if someone gives you this novel and says that it was written by kalki as a sequel to Ponniyin Selvan ( just like SS & Parthiban kanavu), you will have no doubts that it is as good as any of kalki's other works... Akilan definitely deserves a better search result in the world of internet.. I just hope that I had spelt Vengaiyin Maindhan incorrectly ( resulting in this fewer results !! ).. This novel is the story of Chola Kingdom attains its greatest glory and the story of a young hero who helps the chola kingdom to attain its glory - Again, the individuals may be forgotten - but the glory of a kingdom will never be...... Definitely a must read after reading PS..

5. Kayalvizhi - Again !!! This time i was not surprised... Because of my bad experience during searching about vengaiyin maindhan, i was mentally prepared.. Only 10 matches found out of which not even 5 are relevant matches. This book is definitely inspiring... how an individual changes the lives of thousands of people... Its about how a country(pandiya kingdom) crushed by the mighty cholas stand up again and how individuals dream and work towards bringing their dreams to life.. This novel also involves a dancer - unlike SS, here, the heroine is not a bharathanatyam dancer, but a koothu dancer... she is one among the people.. Its a beautiful story, describing about how a prince dreams of a free Pandiya kingdom.. This book has so much reference to valluvar... Thirukkural is the guiding force for the prince... This has been already made into a film - Madhuraiyai meeta sundarapandiyan by MGR and Latha.. My personal opinion is that the movie does not do justice to the novel - because in hero worship of MGR, the true spirit of the novel had been lost in the movie....