Tales on real life characters are always one that draw our attention, and when it is one that is of an army man, it is sure to pull in more of our focus. Rajkumar Periyasamy’s sophomore film is the grand and real Amaran, a film based on the life of Major Mukund Varadarajan.
Amaran is a story with so much heart, as it tells us the story of Major Mukund and his two sides – his cute and charming side as a boyfriend, husband and father and also his charged, active heroics on the field when he’s in the army suit. The film rightly balances these two areas by giving us many entertaining episodes between Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi in the first half, while also giving us intel on how Mukund finds his way into the army, rises up amidst the ranks and ultimately turns into a Major. The first half is superbly done for most parts as it keeps the narrative flowing in an engaging fashion. In the second half, the film moves into an entirely serious zone with more of the Kashmir conflicts, and how Mukund manages to keep his family happy despite being away at work. This is where the action episodes in Kashmir start to feel generic, and the film lacks the thrill and wow moments that it demands with such a source content in hand. The emotional climax is well executed, but it does not give you the teary eyed bang that you’d expect in such a film. At times, Amaran gives you the feel of watching a docu-drama, but it is surely the two central factors in Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi who hold it through so brilliantly.
After playing entertaining roles for most parts of his career, here is Sivakarthikeyan who entirely gets away from his image and builds an entirely different one for Amaran. His body language, diction and all the acting chops have been upgraded for the film, where he shines bright as an actor. Amaran is easily one of Sivakarthikeyan’s best performances, and he has a film that he can be proud of.
On the other hand, Sai Pallavi gets and rules through a film that is entirely hers in terms of the emotional moments, and she proves that she is the best in the business when it comes to emoting on screen. The film is beautiful when its camera is on these two. Amidst the supporting cast, Geetha Kailasam and Bhuvan Arora stand out with superb roles and good performances.
Amaran is technically solid with CH Sai’s superb camerawork and GVP’s strong score holding it through.
On the whole, this is a film that stands all thanks to its heart, and Rajkumar Periyasamy can be happy with what he has achieved to showcase the long lasting love between Mukund and Indhu. Despite its flaws, it’s worth watching in theatres.