R.K. Laxman’s common man sits next to a man in a suit who sits next to a villager on a flight and the caption says, ‘If they reduce the airfares any more, I may have to travel by train or bus!’ This of course was the dream of Captain Gopinath who created Air Deccan so that everyone could afford air travel.
The film Soorarai Pottru is a wonderful dramatisation of this story. This is entrepreneurship at its best. A lad from a remote village sets out to achieve the impossible. He creates a class-less, caste-free airline which becomes very popular. How the system assimilates this maverick airline also becomes part of the story. That’s reason number one to watch Soorarai Pottru which plays on Amazon Prime Video.
Asked to give five reasons why anyone should watch this film, I would say, ‘Suriya, Suriya, Suriya, Suriya, and Suriya.’
Whether he is Advocate Chandru in Jai Bhim, the man with short-term memory loss in Ghajini, playing the best emoted dual role (father and son) in Vaaranam Aayiram or the angry court officer who takes the law into his own hands in Nandha, Suriya is the coolest dude on the silver screen. The recent Bollywood ‘angry cop movies’ became huge successes because they first remade Suriya’s film. He will always remain the original, the irrepressible Singham. So as much as I would like to offer you five of his 65 films as reasons to watch, fans like me have visited the Crowne Plaza hotel in Adyar Park in Chennai because he got married to Jyothika there. His film production company 2D Entertainment along with Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment produced this National Award winning film. Suriya, of course, acts in the film and has won best actor award for this film as well.
The third reason to watch the film is the fiery love story between Maara (Suriya) and Bommi (Aparna Balamurali). Bommi’s parents bring her to visit Maara’s village and his home with a proposal of marriage. When Bommi sees his single-minded dedication to making his dream come true, she rejects him. The first time I saw that, my eyes popped out! What awesome confidence when she says, ‘You are going to concentrate on your dream and forget I exist, and I cannot have that!’
She has a dream of her own too! She gets her bakery and of course Maara gets his airline and together they face the obstacles that the fledgling airline faces in the form of a powerful man Paresh Goswami (played wonderfully by Paresh Rawal). Bommi’s use of Madurai slang will make you smile, and Aparna Balamurali is a wonderful actor, She deserves the best actor (female) award!
The fourth reason to watch Soorarai Pottru is the music of course. G.V. Prakash Kumar deserves the National Award for the Best Background Score for this film. I enjoyed hearing Suriya rap Maara’s theme. But the coolest Kerala band Thaikkudam Bridge plays for this film and you can trawl through Music Mojo shows to hear their other work.
The film also takes off with the Best Screenplay Award for Sudha Kongara (who adapted C.Y. Gopinath’s book Simply Fly and directed the film) and three others: Shalini Ushadevi, Alif Surti and Ganesha.
For me the best moment in the story comes when Maara has got the better of Paresh Goswami, and his flights are about to take off from abandoned airfields - Maara is devastated that the one particular flight that he is looking at has been sabotaged. Maara is in complete despair and is about to give up when he receives news that all other flights have taken off successfully. Uff! That’s the scene where your heart goes out to Maara and his team. Suriya’s amazing transformation from despondent to ecstatic, tears of joy brimming in his eyes - that’s the kind of joy good cinema offers its audience.
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