What’s New: Additional content and related postal materials have been added.

Original Post – 2014:

After so many years I went to the Music Academy to watch a play. Little did I realize that I will be immersed in the experience for days after watching it. My wife and I have never read the novel that the show was based on. We went to watch it with an open mind.

We reached the venue five minutes late, but within few minutes after sitting we got absorbed into the performance on the stage. The play went on for four hours with a break for 10 minutes. The grand sets, lights, and background score were well arranged and were impressive at certain moments.

Every year at the annual Chennai Book Fair, I have seen new editions of that novel by various publishers. It’s none other than the most popular ‘Ponniyin Selvan‘ (“Son of Ponni”) written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. The novel has five volumes. The artists gave wonderful performances, especially the characters of Vanthiyathevan, Alwarkadiyan Nambi, Karikalan, Vanathi, and Poonkuzhali. The ‘Karikalan’ character was played by the cine actor, Pasupathi.

I have heard that there were several attempts to make this novel into a movie or a TV series, but were dropped because of the gigantic task at hand. Given this background, what we witnessed on the stage was an impressive effort that is laudable. ‘The Hindu’ newspaper had published a wonderful review of the play this week. Superstar Rajinikanth and KS Ravikumar were among the audience on the day I went to watch it.

India Post released a stamp of Kalki Krishnamurthy in 1999 to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the writer. I am proud to have it in my collection.

Updates – 2021:

When the play was staged again at the same venue in 2015, my spouse and I were so excited and reserved tickets to watch it. Needless to say, we had a great experience and enjoyed every part of the play. At the venue, the organisers had arranged a small exhibition of news articles, art works, and photos related to the novel.

What I found missing in the exhibit was the postal items on the novel’s author, Kalki Krishnamurthy and the ‘Kalki’ magazine he launched in 1941. In the Kalki Krishnamurthy’s stamp shown above, the postmark hides the full view of the art work. You can see the clear view of the stamp on the following image of the first day cover. The stamp shows the portrait of the author and a painting that represents river Cauvery as a mother holding Arulmozhi Varman (King Raja Raja Cholan as a child).

Ponniyin Selvan tells the story of early days of Arulmozhi Varman, who later became the great Chola emperor Raja Raja Chola I. The novel is widely considered by many as the greatest novel ever written in Tamil literature. It was first published as a weekly series in the Kalki magazine and later consolidated as a novel.

The other collaborators of the Kalki magazine were none other than C. Rajagopalachari, T.S. Sadasivam, M.S. Subbulakshmi, and T.K. Chidambaram. The following image of a postcard shows the special postal cancellation that was issued when the weekly magazine completed 50 years in 1992.

Ponniyin Selvan novel has cult fan following across generations even today. A film adaptation of the novel is currently in production by the ace movie director, Maniratnam.