'Soorarai Pottru' Review: A Biopic, Meant To Highlight A 'Deccan' Success, But Ends Up A 'Dravidianist' Apology

[Tamil Review written by film critic and Tamil writer Haran Prasanna, translated by Aravindan Neelakandan]

Captain Gopinath pioneered India's low-cost, no-frills aviation model by launching Air Deccan. He made flying affordable to millions of Indians.

In a short time, Air Deccan achieved considerable success, and within four years of its launch, it controlled 22% of the market, connecting over 69 cities in India with its fleet of 43 aircraft.

Air Deccan is no longer in the skies after its new owner Vijay Mallya shut down a bleeding aviation enterprise and eventually his whole business, which went bankrupt. But the innovative ideas of Gopinath, a farmer turned entrepreneur, disrupted the Indian aviation industry like never before. It inspired several other aviation ventures, most notably IndiGo and SpiceJet, to take the "low-cost" route to Indian skies.

Only daring entrepreneurs who possess out-of-the-box thinking and the ability to execute ideas on a scale can take a nation and its industries to the next level.

What Captain Gopinath did was precisely such a revolution. One could argue that what he did was even more challenging, and if we understand that, we can appreciate his achievements better.

Gopinath had an irrepressible entrepreneurial streak. He forayed into agriculture and helicopter services. He even plunged into electoral politics contesting elections twice.

Such a storied life is definitely worth a movie. Unfortunately, the Tamil film industry is not yet mature enough to handle a biopic, resulting in many pitfalls despite a good director.

First the good things about the movie. It can be seen with the family. It does not have any trace of vulgarity.

The director has scouted for talent beyond the borders of Tamil land. So casting is top-notch. Paresh Rawal, Achyuth Kumar, Prakash Belawadi, Vivek Prasanna, Kaali Venkat and Poo Ramu form an impressive line-up. Each of them provides a certain gravitas through their performances. Urvasi and Mohan Babu, though, are underwhelming in their roles.

Howsoever Suriya, the hero, tries to act, it simply is beyond him in the opinion of this reviewer.

Aparna Balamurali as Sundari outshines the rest of the cast. The movie is worth watching for the performance.

Whether it is acting, background music, camera, music, or songs — in every aspect of the movie, the crew has given their heart and the dedication shows.

With flowers and thorns in the background, the romance scenes — quite a few of them — show the professional dedication of the crew.

Now on the the problematic aspects of the movie.

In real life, Captain Gopinath is a Brahmin by birth. But in this biopic-like adaptation, he is reimagined as someone hailing from a depressed community. Why this change? Why should a biopic change such a basic fact of one's life?

Merely mentioning at the movie's commencement that the characters are 'imaginary' may be a clever trick. But is that ethical?

Even as the hero's identity is transformed as 'non-Brahmin', the villain is depicted as a Brahmin.

Very early in the movie, a Brahmin character is presented as a bigoted casteist who hates moving with the 'others' on a train. And this character is portrayed as living not in the 1950s but in the 2000s. The scene appears to have been scripted just to elicit a specific response from the 'non-Brahmins' - 'Our Maran (hero) will make us fly.'

But in reality, the person who made the 'cheap' flight possible was a Brahmin, which seems oblivious to the filmmakers.

What is the problem in making the hero as well as the villains Brahmins here? This, then, is the inner coda of the Tamil film industry today.

The hero gets married. What kind of marriage? The so-called self-respect marriage of the Dravidian movement.

In real life, Captain Gopinath married in a ritualistic Iyengar ceremony! In fact, Capt. Gopinath himself had written about his marriage in his autobiography. But in the movie, the bridegroom sports a signature black shirt of the Dravidian movement.

So, what is the caste of the bride? Does she belong to the same caste as the hero or some other caste? When all the villagers contribute for the industry started by Gopinath, to what caste did those villagers belong?

The director, who omits all these facts from the movie, is very careful not to depict Brahmins in positive light anywhere.

At the same time, they show Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. One does not know what evidence they have for Gopinath lamenting to Kalam in the way the movie depicts, but it does not look like Capt. Gopinath had said anything like that in his autobiography.

Of course, Dr. Kalam had written the introduction for his autobiography.

The subtle as well as major distortions in the movie are not random. They follow a pattern.

In real life, when Capt. Gopinath faced problems after getting into the aviation industry, most of the people who helped him were politicians cutting across party lines — S.M.Krishna, Chandra Babu Naidu, Venkaiah Naidu, Rajiv Pratap Rudi et cetera.

When his flights faced problems with respect to security, the Central government itself stood along with Air Deccan.

Had the hero been shown as a Brahmin, this cheap plot could not have provided such a dramatic confrontation, reinforcing anti-Brahmin stereotypes.

What Captain Gopinath faced was corporate business competition, but the movie shows caste bias and caste-based vengeful competition instead.

Another dream of Capt. Gopinath was to develop an air catering business -'A Udupi hotel in the sky' kind of model that provides passengers with a high quality food and beverages at a low cost. 'A Udupi hotel in the sky' remark, which he made in magazine interview, became a popular slogan.The movie thankfully retains this. Thank goodness they have not changed it into a traditional non-vegetarian hotel name, say a 'Muniyandi Vilas!.

Behind every dream there generally is a personal tragedy, and this motivation is a basic film cliché.

This movie also follows that template. For the real-life Gopinath, his father was almost a God. He dedicates his autobiography to him. But in the case of reel-life Maran, his father was a 'confused' personality who could not 'understand' his son.

Suriya could not see his father because the flight cost was forbidding. Now, that is dryness of imagination.

The filmmakers could have come up with something better. And the scenes that follow are quite testing.

The scene is so irrelevant to the plot, given the depiction of Maran as one whose life dream is becoming an aviation entrepreneur.

Real-life Capt. Gopinath also contested in election. Initially, he contested on a BJP ticket and later in 2019 on an AAP one.

In both elections, he was defeated. He had even accompanied former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for electioneering. However, this dimension of Gopinath was deemed irrelevant by the movie makers.

To them, it was the romance and marriage of reel-life Maran, which became more important.

Even when the first aviation attempt fails, the focus shifts to his wife's delivery.

Our filmmakers still have not known where to draw the line between personal life and public achievements in a biopic.

The film moves slowly. A point comes when we yawn, waiting for the 'successful' flight.

The same repetitive reasons, same scenarios, same treasons, same revenges — the same template dialogues of the hero — these are the reasons for this setting of boredom.

In this movie, we are unable to see an aviation entrepreneur, but an action-hero, that is Suriya.

When a biopic is taken, it is no doubt important that alterations are made for cinematic purposes.

But one should not murder the very basic personality of the movie.

That is exactly what has been done in ‘Soorarai Potru’ (Hail the Bravehearts).

The movie could have been made by staying true to the spirit of the autobiography of the real-life hero they intended to praise — but because of their ideological dishonesty, they have ruined it.

'Soorarai Pottru' is a biopic about Capt. G R Gopinath a Brahmin, but ironically, the movie demonises the community.