Amaran: Love All. Always.

#sriGINthoughts #Tamil #Reviews #Amaran

All the Indian military films that one has watched so far tend to be jingoistic, sermonising, or over-the-top in various ways. Amaran could have easily fallen into that trap, but fortunately, it didn’t. The story sticks closely to the events of Mukund’s life, with a strong emphasis on his army exploits.

Sai Pallavi should be boycotted—for acting so well! 😊 As Indhu, she shines: bubbly in her "chettan's" shirts, falling head over heels for Mukund’s charms, standing strong as a "half-widow" when months and years go by without knowing where he is or what he’s up to, and displaying steely resolve and resilience when tragedy finally strikes. Her brilliant moments keep stacking up!

Two scenes in particular made me go "wow!": 

• 1. She’s so proud of Mukund for following his heart that, during his graduation parade, her body language says it all. She even imitates his movements as he throws a gun on the field—scintillating!
• 2. When tragedy hits home, she yoyos through her grief—crying, bottling up, crying, bottling up... until finally showing stoic restraint at the wake. There was hardly a dry eye in the theatre.

There was even a scene reminiscent of Premam—I half-expected a Mammootty song to start playing and she would jive for it! But the filmmakers must have thought it would be too corny. Sensible! 😉

If this performance doesn’t win her awards, I don’t know what will.

Sivakarthikeyan, as Mukund Varadarajan, is more than adequate and has done a wonderful job portraying a hardcore military man. This film is a good crossover for him into more serious roles. If he wants to climb further up the cinema charts, he might want to shed the mantle that the GOAT seemed to have handed him a few weeks back! After all, he gave him a gun to guard a guy in the loo!

Some lines in the film stand out: Indhu’s father tells Mukund, "When you walked in to seek my daughter’s hand in that uniform, I was defenceless!" Mukund, when casually asked by his dad why Kashmir is a problem, responds, "What’s the use of us talking about it when the ones who need to talk aren’t?" And then there’s the moment Mukund asks for his wife’s scarf in the theatre, pretending it’s too cold—a man who spends 90% of his time in Kashmir! 😊 Delightful. 

Of course, Mukund's mother was left to repeat the same dialogue a few times: 'டேய், இதுக்காகவா உன்னை அவ்வளவு கஷ்டப்பட்டு பெத்தேன்?' (Did I endure the pains of your birth only to see you head off to the war front?) And the presence of those Tamil spelling mistakes (e.g. களங்கம் was கலைங்கம்). One spends millions, only to slip up on the basics.

The close-quarters action sequences in Kashmir are very well shot, though they could have been a bit crisper.

The filmmakers have largely stuck to the facts, basing the movie on Shiv Aroor + Rahul Singh’s book India’s Most Fearless. Social media warriors have already trained their KB-47 guns at the makers, about Mukund’s family not being portrayed as Brahmin (why, one wonders?) as they were in real life, but controversy, as always, only adds to the buzz. 😊

At its heart, Amaran is a film about love—whether it’s love at first sight between the two protagonists, Mukund’s dedication to his job, the militants’ love for freedom, or Indhu’s love for everything that is Mukund. Some love kills. Some love makes you live. Some love makes you love, more.

This isn’t your typical festive mood film to walk out of the theatre with joie de vivre. So, have your fun, enjoy the festivities, and when you’re ready, head to the theatre to watch Amaran!

PS1: Next time when someone talks about armed force personnel are ‘just’ doing their job, and are being paid for it, listen to the discussion between Major Mukund Varadarajan and his family on how they need to scrimp to buy a flat in ulu land! (No, I don’t want to talk about such mundane things as them putting their lives on the line for the sake of the country.)

PS2: After watching a million promo reels for this film, my mum insisted on seeing it. Dear Kamal Haasan, your promo tactics worked.

PS3: It is a half-Malayalam, half-Tamil movie. 😋 Thanks to OTT and the hundreds of Mallu movies that one has been through, one could get by without much of a prashnam!

PS3: As is her habit these days, the missus fell asleep at least a few times during the film (no fault of the film!). Remember, she even slept soundly through the blaring Ranjithame song! The height of it was when she chided me to lower the volume because it was too loud. I was like, “Pedima, we’re in the theatre!” 🤣 #PermanentLove