The Cholas are back for one last time in Mani Ratnam's upcoming sequel Ponniyin Selvan 2, and this time they mean business. The film's trailer, which got a grand launch in Chennai on Wednesday, features the Cholas fighting tooth and nail to save their throne from Pandyas and inhouse treachery.
The film takes off where the original left off - Arulmozhi Varman (Jayam Ravi), who is thought to be swallowed by sea, makes a charismatic return, and eager to reach his family with some unsettling news. "Andha oomai arasi yaar?" asks Kundhavai (Trisha), to which her brother responds with the one name that alarms all of them: Nandini. The trailer then follows Nandini's plot to take down Aditya Karikalan (Vikram). "Karikalan will die at my hands in Kadambur," she says.
The sequel promises to answer many questions that went unanswered in the original, but the biggest of them all is the identity of the Oomai Arasi (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in a double role), who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nandini.
The Mani Ratnam magnum opus is a cinematic rendition of Kalki Krishnamurthy's classic novel series of the same name. The sequel, which also stars Karthi, Jayaram, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj and Parthiban, will be released in theatres on April 28.