My chest hurts.
Is that normal? I just finished Soorarai Pottru on Amazon Prime and it feels like I just ran a marathon. A marathon where someone is punching you in the gut with inspiration and then also kicking you in the shins with reality. It's 1:17 AM and my whole body is buzzing. I feel like I need to go build something. Or start a revolution. Or just, like, cry a little.
I'm on my couch, right? The one with the weird dip in the middle from years of, you know, existing. And I just sat here for two and a half hours, completely glued. My phone was face down, I didn't check it once. That's a miracle. That's how you know a movie has you in a chokehold. There was this one scene… this one scene where Maara, Suriya's character, he's trying to get a loan. And the banker is just this smug wall of condescension. And Maara, this proud, fiery man, he gets on his knees. He literally kneels on the floor of that bank and begs. And I physically lurched forward on my couch. My hands just clenched into fists. I felt this surge of… I don't even know what. Anger? Humiliation for him? It was so visceral. So real. I wanted to jump through the screen and punch that banker in the face.
And the thing is, he's not just a hero. He's flawed. He's stubborn, he makes mistakes, he pushes his wife away. Which brings me to Bommi. Oh my god, Bommi. Aparna Balamurali. She wasn't just a "supportive wife" trope. She was the goddamn backbone of the whole movie. She had her own dreams, her own fire. That scene where she slaps him? YES. And then that scene where he's at his lowest, and she shows up with a box of her things and just says, "I'm with you." I lost it. Completely lost it. Had to pause the movie. My cat, Loki, who was sleeping on my feet, looked up at me like I was a lunatic. I just sat there, staring at the paused screen on my TV, trying to get myself together. It’s just… the power of that partnership. It wasn't about her sacrificing for him. It was about them building a dream together, even when they were on different pages. It felt so… adult. So real.
It made me think of this one time, back in 11th grade, I wanted to start this coding club. I had the whole plan, the posters, everything. I went to the principal, and he just laughed. He said, "Focus on your studies, Ishaan. These things are a distraction." I remember walking out of his office, my posters feeling so stupid in my hands. The hallway felt so long. I just crumpled them up and threw them in the bin on my way out. Never thought about it again until now. My dream was so small, a stupid little coding club, and it felt like the world ended. Maara's dream was to make flying accessible to the common man. The scale is… incomprehensible. But that feeling of being told "no" by someone who holds all the cards. That I get. I really, really get it.
Honestly, the whole movie is just a masterclass in building tension and then releasing it in the most satisfying way possible. The bureaucracy, the corruption, the rich people who just want to keep getting richer… it all feels so insurmountable. You're watching and you're thinking, "There's no way. There's just no way he can win." They stack the deck against him so high. And that's the point, isn't it? The system is designed to crush people like him.
But then there are these small victories. The little moments of hope. And you cling to them. I found myself talking to the screen. "Don't trust him, Maara!" "YES! Get him!" I must have looked like a crazy person. But that's the power of it. You're so invested. You're not just watching a story; you're living the struggle.
There's this one shot that I just can't get out of my head. It’s not a big, dramatic moment. It’s just Maara, early on, standing in a field, looking up at a plane flying overhead. The camera is just on his face. And his eyes… they’re not just looking. They’re consuming. They're full of this pure, uncut, almost desperate longing. It’s the look of a man who sees a different world up there, a world he wants to be a part of so badly it physically hurts. In that one shot, you understand his entire character. You understand the why behind everything he's about to do. It's quiet, it's simple, but it's one of the most powerful things I've ever seen in a movie.
I keep thinking about the ending. When the plane finally takes off. The music swells, everyone is cheering, it's this massive, triumphant moment. And I was right there with them. My heart was pounding. But now, a few minutes later, I'm sitting here thinking… was it too perfect? I mean, I know it's based on a true story, so it *did* happen. But in the context of the movie, it feels so… clean. After all that grit and grime and struggle, the ending is so polished. I thought I loved it in the moment, but now that I'm typing this… was it a little bit of a Hollywood-ization of a very real, very messy story? Or did it just earn that moment of pure, unadulterated joy? I don't know. I'm probably overthinking it. Maybe a movie like this needs to give you that perfect ending. Maybe we, the audience, need it after going through all that with him. We need to believe that the good guy can win, against all odds.
Watching it at home on Prime was a weirdly intimate experience, too. I could pause it. I could rewind a line of dialogue if I missed it. I could sit here in my pajamas and feel this massive, epic story unfold right in my living room. There's something about that. It's not the big screen, but it's personal. It felt like Maara's story was being told just to me. I could see the sweat on his face, the dirt under his fingernails. The details were all there, right in front of me, without any distractions. (Except for Loki, who decided my lap was a much better place to be halfway through).
And the music! G.V. Prakash Kumar's score just… it soars. It's not just background noise. It's another character. It pushes you forward, it lifts you up, it breaks your heart. It’s perfect.
So yeah. My chest hurts. My head is spinning. I feel inspired and exhausted and sad and happy all at once. I feel like I need to call my parents. I feel like I need to go do something impossible. This movie… it's not just a movie. It's a feeling. It's a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. I'm going to be thinking about this for a long, long time. About Maara. About Bommi. About planes. And about what it means to really, truly, refuse to fail.
Okay, I'm done. I need to go walk around the block or something.
9.5/10 - banger
- ishaan