A loyal reader is the most elusive character, but Kalki sustained the allegiance of millions of them for years with his down-to-earth writing and vivid descriptions, and always ended the weekly episode with some suspense. It appeared that most of the star protagonists of the story were picked out from the teeming streets of then Madras, and the reader identified them as one of their own.

Raja Raja of the Cholas expanded his empire and left behind towering edifices. But little did people know of his early years, for he was not even in the line of succession. His uncle and elder brother were the claimants to the throne. Only by a quirk of fate did Raja Raja, then called Arulmozhi Varman, ascended the Chola throne.

Even Alexander Dumas’ novels were primarily serialised in magazines. And there were tinges of Dumas in scores of places in Ponniyin Selvan as well. One could draw parallels between the exquisite Nandini and Milady de Winter of The Three Musketeers. The chivalrous Vanthiyathevan appeared similar to D’artagnan.

But serialisation had its problems too.

When Kalki got facts wrong, he could not go back to the story and edit. For instance, boatman Murugaiyan, introduced as a dumb character, would speak in chapters later in the novel. And in one instance, Kalki mentions the Mughals, who didn’t turn up in history till 400 years later.

However, there was a touch of undeniable genius in the writing. Ponniyin Selvan had many commoners in it, and Kalki sketched mundane civilian life in the Chola days, something no writer had done before. There were flower pickers, boat girls and lighthouse keepers moving along with princes and princesses.

Then there is a group of villains, headed by Ravidasan from the forest, which was always conspiring to kill the Chola royals. Artist Maniam drew realistic portraits to accompany every episode and helped the audience visualise the characters. Kalki magazine sales reached 70,000 copies, putting many competitors out of business.

The title of the novel was deceptive; Raja Raja is not the lead character. Kalki’s masterstroke was his ingenious choice of a commoner, Vanthiyathevan, as the main protagonist (he is featured thrice in the Big Temple edicts). Vanthiyathevan was a typical ‘boy next door’ character who is the prince from a long defunct Bana lineage and visibly disappointed with his lack of personal grandeur. In two instances in the book, he is described by pretty women as an owl or a tail-less monkey. But Vanthiyathevan, to his credit, had a larger female fan following than any other in the Tamil readership.

What crown prince Aditya gave Vanthiyathevan was no dangerous mission. He just had to hand over a message to the emperor and one to princess Kundavai. On the way to Thanjavur, he goes to meet his friend, the Sambuvarayar prince of the Kadambur fortress. Sleeping on the terrace, he overhears the chieftains of the Chola land colluding over who the next Chola king should be. Knowledge of the conspiracy turns his journey into a jolly old adventure where a hero takes his life in one hand and his spear in the other.

He even befriends a spy, who is also a Veera Vaishnava, falls in love with pretty girls, is thrown into a dungeon which tigers guard, and survives drowning incidents and conspiracies. Vanthiyathevan even strides into the Pandya camp, where a man’s life is worth about a few Chola coins. Amidst these conspiracies, there is no shortage of endearing romantic interludes and social messages.

By concluding the book, when a flower boy becomes the Chola emperor and a boat girl his empress, Kalki had announced to the world that democracy had gained a definite currency in India.

In 1954, Kalki did the unthinkable and ended his novel abruptly, leaving all his fans shell-shocked. The characters had by then become almost a part of the family and readers were outraged. Thousands of them did nothing to hide their annoyance and wrote scathing letters to Kalki to resume the story, but he would not budge. It was possibly because of the premonition that Kalki had of his death, for he died within six months after the novel was stopped.

The novel has been printed as a book and is still a best-selling title. Three sequels have appeared in the 60 years since the book was written, on what the characters could possibly have done after the book ended.

Movie-Making

It was logical that such a popular book should embrace the main obsession of the Tamil land — cinema. The first attempt was when, fresh from the success of Nadodi Mannan (vagabond king), M G Ramachandran (MGR) was looking for scripts to repeat the victory. It was then that he turned to Ponniyin Selvan. MGR was a co-resident of Kalki in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, and when Kalki died in 1954, he walked along the hearse all the way to the cremation grounds.

MGR obtained the copyright for a limited period from the Kalki family, and the advertisement for the launch of the movie was released in 1959. Casting work commenced and lead actors were chosen for even small roles. But successive box-office hits slowly moved MGR away from his dream. As late as 1964, he is reported to have told the press that location choices were ready and shooting would commence any moment.

But it was not to be, and until his agreement for the copyright lapsed, MGR, who was known to be a go-getter, couldn’t film Ponniyin Selvan.

Actor Kamal Haasan, for a few years, tried to film Ponniyin Selvan. Stage plays and cartoons have been made, but no film has been made till now.

Today, ace director Mani Ratnam is on the job trying to portray Kalki’s magnum opus on screen. So is Soundarya Rajinikanth, who is trying to make a web series out of the novel.

But there is resistance from the market that the film producers refuse to recognise. Most readers have read the novel in an impressionable age and visualised the characters and the imageries in a certain mould, and which have been engraved in their minds. To see an incongruous face in their mental mould is repugnant to many.

Whenever there is an announcement that Ponniyin Selvan would come alive on screen, it creates a distinct unease amongst admirers. By this time, next year, we would know if Kalki’s characters, Vanthiyathevan and Kundavai, seductress Nandini and the boat girl Pungkuzhali, would actually be transposed to the celluloid.