Ponniyin Selvan

Well ,they say this is one of the best Tamil novels ever written.To substantiate that fact the Tamil Nadu Government Nationalized this novel and it's available as open source to anyone to publish. I happen to read one of such open source e-text versions which incidentally was prepared in my college MIT as a part of KBC research project for preserving ancient Tamil Literature and the e-text link is available here - Ponniyin Selvan
To say about the novel,I kinda liked it to some extent for the way Kalki had stroked it.He's adept at beautifully portraying things especially when he's describing about Nandini's / Kundavi's beauty -You can't help but keep wondering about how B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l Nandini could be ! Some of the conversations between Aalwarkadiyan,Vallavarayan,Kundavi deserve special appreciations.Sometimes you get so much engrossed with the Chola world that makes you forget yourself and get completely entangled with the novel & sometimes the opposite ; especially when the characters try to explain the same things again and again - Since this novel was written as series in Kaki magazine for 3.5 years,he had to repeat the same things again and again to make audience understand it if they missed some part of the series or forgot some portion and this repetitive nature obstructs the flow of the novel too.

Some of the greatest freedom for a Thriller writer are:

• One can twist the character as one wishes and one can change circumstances upside down which will be completely opposite to what you thought/guessed at first
• You can introduce any number of characters in-between without being questioned ,just because it adds meat to your meal (the story)
  
• And the characters can change their mind/stance as and when needed. I could find lot of things that are unanswered / require special explanation by the author etc

Overall I have a mixed feelings towards this novel - I do not know whether I like it or not !

I'm not sure if i'm biased just because it's a Tamil Novel.May be thriller isn't my cup of tea.May be I believe English novelist are way better than Tamil counterparts.May be I read it so fast and missed something.Anything could be a reason for my apathy! Forgive me Ponniyin selvan Fanatics !