Ponniyin Selvan I - historical musings

The movie keeps referring to Sri Lanka as Lanka (Ilangai). This name is fairly recent. The right name should have been SwarnaDvipa, Tamraparni or Simhala. Simhala was populated by people from Kalinga (now Odisha). Sinhala is Samskritam based & still has similarities to Odisha. https://bharatbhumika.blogspot.com/2015/11/geography-of-ramayana.html

The movie accurately refers to Ashoka's daughter respectfully in Simhala. After Ashoka converted to Buddhism, his children become missionaries. Sanghamitra does go to Simhala & the people convert to Buddhism under her influence. However, the Mauryan empire collapses after Ashoka.

In war scenes, the warriors are not wearing war helmets that protect the nose. In a beach battle, ArulMozhi is wearing a turban. In the middle of a battle, he removes his turban. I understand that actors are paid for their expressions & the need to show them to the audience. A better way would be to show the war helmet getting knocked off in battle. Gowarkar does this well in Panipat. 

Also, in the beach battle, the Chozha army is shown coming ashore while the Sinhala army is waiting. Either the ships need projectile weapons to provide covering fire to the boats coming ashore, or the soldiers need to come ashore in stealth. Else, the beach landing will fail. This battle could have been better thought through. Also, an unarmed ArulMozhi swimming to the enemy ship while they were watching would be easily captured. It was unrealistic to show him climb unarmed & then defeating multiple warriors.

Sundara Chozhan is shown as being treated with acupuncture by Chinese physicians. Varma Kalai, a part of Hindu martial arts like Kalari Payattu, used acupressure. This was introduced to the Shaolin temple by Buddhabhadra who founded it in 496 CE, the 1st abbot & later by Bodhidarma, the 2nd abbot. The acupressure martial arts techniques were later developed into acupuncture by the Chinese. But this would have taken multiple centuries. It seems incongruous to show this treatment in the movie. The director could have shown acupressure or some kind of oral medicine. https://www.facebook.com/trueindology.org/posts/this-painting-from-ancient-shaolin-temple-china-depicts-the-indian-monk-buddhabh/1134417563425428/