[Fegasderty]

Hi friends!
The art of writing historicals is a very difficult art. simply put it is the art of filling up gaps in history(due to want of facts and evidence) with imaginative guesswork and imaginary characters. Kalki, while writing Ponniyin Selvan did not have any compulsions to write a fast paced novel. He did not care about the pace of the novel(Strange even for a weekly series). Whereas Sandilyan was under the compulsion of making every episode fast paced and thrilling(weekly one episode). Strange as it may sound, though both wrote for literary magazines, Sandilyan's style was apt for Kumudam(young people's magazine). Kalki wrote for old people and kids(predominantly). So comparing them both is like comparing Michael Bevan and Rahul Dravid(Both excel in different league of cricket). Due to the fact that Kumudam patronised Sandilyan, he wrote huge no. of historicals for that magazine. Which in turn might have taken away some depth, which Kalki could impart to his 3 major historicals(Parthiban Kanavu, Sivagamiyin Sabadham adn Ponniyin selvan). In short Sandilyan's work are like paperbook novels written by James Hadley Chase, in a historical context. But very very interesting.
thanks,
Jaiganesh