Soorarai Potru

Sometimes flying feels too God like to be attained by man. The world from above seems too wonderful, too beautiful and too distant for human eyes to see said the renowned American aviator Charles Lindberg who piloted the spirit of St.Louis from New York to Paris and created history by flying the first solo non stop flight across the Atlantic in just 33 1/2 hours. Flights and aviation is definitely a fascinating subject in itself and there is always an element of mystery and grandeur to it.

Firstly Sudha Kongara has to be applauded for directing a movie based on real life incidents which sure has more drama and dreams than writers can ever imagine.I just loved the team for chosing this subject since we got tired of often seeing some macho and the not so ones yielding guns and at the drop of the hat there are so much expletives along with more than liberal dosages of explicit scenes in the content we have been provided generally. Of course the audiences love the likes of Munna Bhaiyya and Khaleen Bhaiyya of Mirzapur and more they kill the merrier it seems for the viewers. With no offence meant to the creators of this series nor their fans for the mindless mayhem they create what I feel is even during these times cinema as a medium is powerful to tell stories about people who just dared to dream differently and meandered away from the path generally taken.

The story is based on the owner of Deccan Airways Captain Gopinath and how he never traded off his dreams in terms of whatever adversities came his way. However cliched it may seem that repeated failures will lead to success the world needs to hear more stories like this for this generation to dream big and take the path less traversed. While most are content with what they have and get used to their mediocre existence only some are designed to achieve glory and these stories deserve to be captured for they are truly extraordinary. Seldom movies inspire you to write and the kind of offerings we have been fed with in recent times you even wonder if the makers take them seriously. Just like they say a Pilot may be technician but an aviator has to be a creative genius. Cinema needs more of just not technicians but creators who are passionate, original and toil hard for their creation. Then the effort easily shows in the screen just like our exam preparation and results.

If Aadukalm and Asuran is for Dhanush definitely Soorarai Potru is for Suriya. The man hardly five feet and few inches walks tall in the entire movie. His expressive eyes make you feel the agony, anguish, anger, debacles, frustrations, et al with such finesse which we havent seen in any protaganist in a long while in Indian cinema. Though a tad exaggerated the scene where he pleads for few thousands in the airport would be etched in the memory for long. His breaking down scene is a real tear jerker and there would be few whose eyes don’t become moist in that scene. In fact he steals every frame and another expression I loved is when he hesitatingly asks his life partner to lend him some money. That for me was simply brilliant and so nice to see such delicate financial issues between a man and his woman portrayed with such artistry and elegance. You literally feel for Nedumaran in every scene and his dream temporarily becomes yours too during those gripping minutes when you are engaged with him in his single minded pursuit. What better man to come to his rescue than the immortal Dr. Kalam who rightly said that dreams are those which keep you awake without sleeping than those what you get during your sleep.

An extremely realistic portrayal by Aparna Balamurali as Bommi and how thankful we feel when they show that a woman can have aspirations of her own and that she need not lose her individuality once she is married and there is no need to bury her dream for the fulfilment of the dream of her man. Thanks for showing in the celluloid that marriage is all about the husband and wife encouraging each other and working together to make their individual dreams come true. This in a nutshell is the edifice and a strong foundation for a successful marriage even in today’s age and time. Surely the overbearing male dominance is slowly diminishing and great to see stories reflecting such thoughts. I was very impressed with simple no skin show leading lady who has a mind of her own. This is how women should be portrayed and enough of portraying them as damsels in distress wearing next to nothing and waiting to be released from some silly kidnappers and villains.

With such powerhouse performances by the lead pair, when you think that what others would be left to do, surprisingly a character which has a screen presence even for five minutes in this movie have amazingly lived their roles. Such an outstanding performance by Urvashi, Kali Venkat ,the friends of Suriya and many others. Paresh Rawal and Suresh Belawadi have done justice but I found them a tad underwhelming when compared to their previous outings. The crowd funding telephone conversation scene by the Villagers for an almost defunct and dysfunctional airline brought me some goosebump moments.

GV’s background score

GV’s background score and the couple songs have elevated the movie to a different plane altogether. The montage technique of presenting songs pioneered by the veteran Balu Mahendra and still adopted by various directors gives us some of the best imaginatively captured songs in tamil cinema. Well when you think the movie is without flaws it does have a few like many of the scenes look a tad rushed and you are not slowly led to the crescendo. Things happens too quickly sometimes May be the film could have been a little longer for the scenes to organically grow into you.

In the final scene when an old village lady alights from the flight and you see tears of joy rolling down from Nedumaran’s eyes and perhaps yours too, you subconciously feel that these are types of stories which need to be told often. It is said that good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately good experience comes from bad judgment and repeated failures. This irony of life is effectively portrayed and brought to life in Soorarai Potru with some sheer brilliant acting performances and hopefully the other creators take note that there are millions of stories like this. which deserved to be told, Kudos to the lady who has helmed the movie and the entire crew for their superlative and outstanding efforts.