Review soorarai pottru (tamil)

Producer-Suriya and Guneet Monga

Director- Sudha Kongara

Star Cast- Suriya, Aparna Balamurali, Paresh Rawal, Prakash Belawadi, Mohan Babu

Genre- Social

Platform- Amazon Prime Video

Rating- ***1/2

TRIUMPH OF THE DIRECTOR!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Based on Captain GR Gopinath's Simply Fly and 'Stories from the aviation industry', the film is an inspiring tale about a common man who dreams big enough to want to start his own low cost airlines by converting cargo planes into passenger planes for the common man. In short, the film is a laudable attempt to present a thinly-disguised version of how G R Gopinath wages a prolonged battle to start the low cost airline Deccan Air, and overcomes one obstacle after another, to put the common man (and woman) in an aircraft, making flying universally accessible.

The film revolves around Nedumaaran Rajangam (Suriya), the son of a school teacher (Poo Ramu) in a Madurai village, who decides to start an airline that can be aspirational for even the less privileged. But Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), a leader in the aviation industry, wards off every attempt of his to ensure that this dream doesn't take off, and the film is about whether or not will Nedumaaran alias Maara is able to reach for the sky and not fall down?

The film, which has a theme that has bridged the gap between the haves and have-nots, subtly crusades patriarchy in its own way. When Nedumaran says he is ready to marry Bommi (Aparna Balakrishnan), she rejects him. When she is asked the reason for her saying 'No' to Maara, when he tells his parents that he is ready to marry her, she asks her relative if he had ever posed the same question to the 20 men who had rejected her as a bride!

And when her family is concerned that Maara might not be able to look after her, she angrily asks why always the man is supposed to care for his wife, after marriage. Bommi’s characterization is interesting. Like Maaran is ambitious to start his own airline, she also wants to start her own bakery.

While Suriya lives his complex aspirational role as Nedumaran effectively, Aparna Balamurali as Bommi gives a spunky performance that instantly makes this character endearing and instantly appealing to the viewer, though she is not strikingly beautiful in the conventional sense. Poo Ramu's role as Rajangam, is very touching, especially when you see the father-son skirmishes and you have to applaud the terrific Urvashi, who, for a change, gets a serious role in Tamil, and plays with aplomb the role of Maran’s mother. Karunas, as Bommi's uncle Alapparai scores with his layered performance.

This rags-to-riches tale lucidly also lampoons the sordid views that people have on caste, with Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), a rival airlines owner who wants to prevent ‘coolies and beggars’ from stepping into his airline, keeps creating obstacle after obstacle for the poor Nedumaran when he seeks his appointment for a partnership in his plans and plots to scuttle Nedumaran’s plans by using his clout with the avian industry guys. Paresh underplays his character with negative shades wonderfully; Mohan Babu and Prakash Belawade leave a good impact even though their roles are not big enough.

Shalini Ushadevi and Sudha Kongara deserve kudos for their tight screenplay, which does equal justice to the female protagonist too in addition to the male though they have followed a typical formula film pattern and have also included quite a few songs in the film which could have been slickly edited . On the whole, it is the triumph of both the director as well as the actor cum producer Suriya.