Caution: This blog post is filled with spoilers from the movie. Refrain from reading if you haven’t watched the movie yet!
Hey Everyone!
It’s been quite a bit of time since my last post. Truth be told, I haven’t come across anything which motivated me to write. I even thought of unsubscribing from WordPress for the coming year :p, unfortunately I am gonna trouble you with my posts for the foreseeable future.
It was around the same time last year when I got to see Kaapaan on Amazon prime, The film is the most suitable example for a high budget flop. Nothing worked in the movie and it almost felt like the makers had to release it to recoup some production costs. This was probably the 7th or 8th consecutive underwhelming film for Suriya in the past decade.
Suriya had long transformed into a mainstream actor by around 2010 or so and his movie choices were questionable most of the times(read Anjaan :p). Barring 24 almost all of his movies had more flaws than likeable elements in the past decade.
I would not be the only person who was least interested in his future movies. Then one fine day a teaser from his new release Soorarai Pottru (Literally translating to Praise the Brave) hit the net. It was probably the best teaser that we got to see in the previous 3-4 years, it was cut terrifically and the maara theme just added to the intensity of the teaser.
Teaser Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyzraT_np8w
Basic Plot: This is a fictional take on Captain G.R.Gopinath’s life, who was the founder of Air Deccan. The film takes 3-4 incidents from his book Simply Fly and a story has been weaved out of them.
Air Deccan was the pioneer in low cost airlines in the Indian Aviation Industry and was the first airline to offer tickets at prices as low as 1 rupee (not kidding).
Having a great cast solves 50% of the problems
No movie can connect with you emotionally unless you are able to feel what the characters are going through. With Surya, Urvashi, Kaali Venkat, Vinodheni and Vivek Prasanna, Sudha (Director of the movie) has with her some of the best acting talents in Tamil film Industry. Even someone who doesn’t like Surya would accept that he is one of the finest actors that we have.
It would be an understatement to say that Surya has given his life for the role of Nedumaaran Rajangam (Maara as he’s called often in the movie). The movie rides on his performance and any mishap in his performance could have brought the entire movie down. He has come out with his best performance in the past decade (No I didn’t find his performance in NGK to be a strong one).
The supporting characters add belief to the proceedings. There are innumerable scenes in the movie where secondary characters are allowed to shine and this elevates the movie to whole new heights. I particularly liked the guy who played Che in the movie.
I was skeptical about the romantic portions to be very honest. Thankfully, Aparna and Surya make things lively and their pairing has worked wonders for the movie.
Aparna’s character isn’t the usual damsel in distress that we have gotten used to. The character motivates, swears and plays a key role in the life of Maara. Her character is the most well rounded one after Maara in the movie.
Kaasila Ma..
Soorarai Pottru is a commercial film at heart. All the commercial films that have worked in the past have touched the hearts of people in some way or another.
Unless you feel for the characters in the movie you won’t find the movie to be interesting. The best example I can give for this is Bigil :p (Fans please forgive me), when Rayappan dies in the movie everyone in the scene is crying at the top of their voices but we as audience felt nothing. The entire scene played out so generically that it added zero value to the movie.
Compare that with the sequence of Maara begging in front of people at the airport to give him money for a business class ticket. The entire sequence plays out so emotionally and when Maara breaks down in front of his mother it was heart breaking.
That particular scene is worth one year of our prime subscriptions :p
Naalu Nimisham..
Be it the Maara Theme or Aagasam eppothum, the album is filled with some of the best works that G.V.Prakash has done in the recent past.
The BGM elevates the movie at several points and the effort shows in the way we get to hum to the tunes that play on screen.
GV has always been good with melodies and the Usure/Naalu Nimisham tracks are easily one of his best works. The much hyped Maara theme adds the much added adrenaline at various points in the movie.
Jukebox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK8yNuWyj9E
**** naan andha flight owner da!
Dialogues by Uriyadi director Vijay Kumar form the backbone of this movie. Be it the interaction between Surya and Paresh Rawal or with his friends, the dialogues in the movie make a lot of sense in the movie’s universe.
None of the dialogues seemed force-fit and even the passing comments in the scenes cracked me up.
Although the use of abusives could have been done away at a few places, especially that one word :p
What didn’t work for me…
The Madurai Tamizh accent is all over the place. While many sequences have a lot of authenticity and in some scenes the accent seemed to be forced.
The villain is the usual corporate criminal that we have been served in the past few years :p and the character’s ending was downright silly.
The film took a little bit of time to settle down but once Maara starts running from pillar to post to start the airline, the film becomes something else.
Sure some sequences were illogical but all these details are just minor blips that an Idiot like me would try to find. The film is close to being perfect on everything it tries and it succeeds at them!
I have an Airline to run, My Friend!
Soorarai Pottru is one of those rare movies which motivates you to do something with your life (even if it’s just for a brief period of time :p) and gives you goosebumps right through the movie.
I never take movies to my heart and usually laugh at the emotional scenes in them. But this one had me crying at 2am in the night the first time I saw it!
The movie is streaming right now on Amazon Prime, do yourself a favour and watch the movie ASAP!
Image Credits: Google, Youtube
P.S.: Kudos to the entire team for not making the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam scene as a PR exercise _/\_
மௌனம் 