kripa says its difficult to even compare SS and PS. just wondered , if both books are typed and given to a new reader would he realise they were by the same author? kalki conceived SS when he had a new magazine to run, india was just approaching freedom and he wrote Ps in a free land and with an established magazine. since kalki has gone on the record saying SS was conceived much earlier we can even give it a 1935 date. Ps on the other hand was finished in 1954. a lot from Ps makes it eveident that kalki wrote the story one chapter at a time without really bothering where it was all leading to. he was at the height of his writing career and th flow from his pen was incredible at that point of time. the applause from the readers week by week also made him supremely confident. so we could establish there was a lot of differences in kalki as a man when he did these two books. what we should do now is try to get the common aspects in both books. they must be there for the same mind conceived them. let me start naga nandhi and nandhini, the name and the comparison to snakes the flood scenes the marvesham done by the charecters there must be much more.......
The similarities are very much to do with the culture of those days and you can see that in movies also. Both hero and heroine have a best friend/second hero/heroine. Narasimha/Paranjyothi, Arunmozhi/Vandiyadevan, Sivakami/Kamali, Kundavai/Vanadhi. There is usually a spy and a spy's second in line - Satrugnan/Gundodharan, Vandidyadevan/Azhvarkadiyan. The second guy is usually comedian double up, both Gundodharan and Azhvarkadiyan are comedians too. There has to be a kaikeyi like woman villi - Nandini, and perhaps in SS the woman kapalikai. Wise minister, Aniruddhar here, perhaps Kulachirayar there.
The major difference - SS is about an external enemy, PS is internal conflict and strife. In SS you know everyone like you knew your next door neigbor, even Naganandi you can sympathise as the underdog brother with unrealised love. In PS you don't know whom to sympathise with since there is no telling how they will behave (granted this has its own fascination).
Yes like Venkat said, Kalki was a different person while he wrote them and it reflects quite truly. Will I be able to tell if the same person wrote both?? Perhaps not. I would probably say after reading PS - 'Evar konjum Sivakamiyin Sabatham paddichurkkalam' :))