Underplayed Gems

Soorarai Pottru (2020)

Soorarai Pottru poster
Original title
சூரரைப் போற்று
Directed by
Sudha Kongara Prasad
Genre
drama film
Country
India
Runtime
2h 29m
Rated
U
Rating
7.8 of 10 from 127 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A man from a small town dreams of starting a low-cost airline to make flying accessible to everyone. He faces many obstacles from powerful rivals and the system as he fights to turn his vision into reality.

inspirationalupliftingdeterminedemotionalgrittyhopefulfast-paced

What happens

Soorarai Pottru (transl. Praise the Brave) is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Sudha Kongara, who wrote the screenplay with Shalini Usha Nair. The film, co-produced by Suriya and Jyothika of 2D Entertainment and Guneet Monga of Sikhya Entertainment, stars Suriya, Aparna Balamurali and Paresh Rawal, while Mohan Babu, Urvashi and Karunas appear in supporting roles. The film was inspired by events from the life of G. R. Gopinath, founder of Indian low-cost airline Simplifly Deccan, as described in his memoir Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey. The project was announced in mid-2018 under the working title Suriya 38, and the official title was announced in April 2019. Principal photography began the same month and ended that September, and filming took place in Madurai, Chennai, and Raigarh. G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the film's music, while Niketh Bommireddy was the cinematographer and Sathish Suriya edited the film. The theatrical release of the film was affected by post-production delays and the COVID-19 pandemic; it was released through Amazon Prime Video on 12 November 2020, the eve of the Diwali festival, and received critical acclaim. It was selected as one of ten Indian films to be screened in the Best Foreign Film category at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. The film also entered the Panorama Section of the Shanghai International Film Festival. Soorarai Pottru won seven awards at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, and earned five awards at the 68th National Film Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Suriya), Best Actress (Aparna), Best Screenplay (Sudha and Nair) and Best Background Score (G. V. Prakash Kumar). A Hindi remake Sarfira, again directed by Sudha, was released in 2024. Rawal reprises his role in the Hindi remake too. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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