Soorarai Pottru

Soorarai Pottru (an Amazon original movie) is directed by Sudha Kongara. As per the credits, the film is based on Captain G R Gopinath’s real-life, documented in Simply fly and many other real-life aviation stories. Capt. Gopinath is the founder of Air Deccan, the low-cost airline that revolutionized air travel in India. I haven’t read the book, but I have traveled on Air Deccan before its acquisition by Kingfisher. Without reading the book, I can only view this as a movie with merits and demerits.

Soorarai Pottru is an excellent example of a movie that opens with bad visuals but still can end up as an engrossing one. It is also an example of how your mentors leave their mark on your work. I will get to the latter point later and concentrate on the first point. The opening scenes of the movie are laden with cringe-worthy CGI. These are scenes depicting an urgent landing of an Air Deccan aircraft. But there are many other things which work in favor of the movie in these scenes too. Background music, editing, photography, and acting help create the viewer’s necessary tension. You will see these factors throughout the movie. Luckily for us, the visuals do not disappoint during these scenes, like in the initial scenes.

Sudha focuses on the drama by telling the struggles of Maaran, short for…