Amaran - achchamillai, achchamillai...

 

Amaran

2024, Tamil

Director: Rajkumar Periasamy

Stars: Sivakarthikeyan, Sai Pallavi, Rahul Bose, Geetha Kailasam

Mohan's Measure: ⭐⭐

Now that all the controversies and inaccuracies of this movie have been identified and discussed, let us look at this movie as simply that - a movie.

Amaran has all the makings of a good war movie, a noble hero, a supportive wife, evil villains, and of course, lots and lots of guns and explosions.  And, for the most part, the pieces are put together well enough to offer an engaging, albeit trite presentation of what otherwise are the horrors of war.  But, in the end, what is offered just doesn't feel right. It lacks something aesthetically.

The problem I saw is ingenuousness. The ideas of duty, honor, patriotism and self-sacrifice feel like afterthoughts.  Mr. Sivakarthikeyan has beefed himself up for the role to look like a soldier, but there are many times where he comes across like a little boy playing one.  He lacks the toughness and the stoicism that other actors, particularly Bollywood and Tollywood actors, can pull off.

Ms. Sai Pallavi is more stage acting her part, trying to make herself into the sad but dutiful wife who must endure separation from her husband.  In a pivotal scene, she simply screams and cries for nearly 10 minutes, somehow being able to listen on a mobile phone to tragic events unfolding around her husband as his platoon is attacked.  The scene is brought to closure abruptly, as though the fear and anguish can just be put aside and replaced with the usual long-distance romance.  And, it is scenes like this one where the realities of war are turned to mere hyperbole.

I feel if this movie had been made with actors who are geared for the role, it would have worked better. Instead what we see are people acting out a stage play, hoping for a curtain call.

The stills and videos of the real people at the end only assuage what we just saw into few "Kleenex" moments. They do little to tell us the pathos of the true hero of this film, Major Mukundan himself.

One must have been really brave - or well paid - to offer such level of praise for this movie.