Amaran – 2024 – Well made

Genre: War + Love story

Time: 2 Hours 49 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Writer Director: Rajkumar Periasamy

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan. Sai Pallavi. Rahul Bose. Bhuvan Arora.

Generally speaking India sucks at making war movies – unless the film is filled with the usual masala of songs, dances , emotional dramas and so on. However the life of Major Mukund Varadarajan seems to be really made for Indian cinema as it has a full bag of emotional drama , punctuated with action and violence , given that he was a Major in the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) , the premier counter insurgency unit of the Indian Army, working mainly in the Badlands of the J&K terrorism affected districts.

The real life romantic drama of Mukund, a Tamil Hindu falling in love and marrying a Malayali Christian occupies the sizable first half of the movie , leading to a feeling of – is this real ? It cant be – surely the writer director is making things up. However since there have been no objections from the families , and Mukund’s wife Indu , was present in the initial promotions and press conferences, one assumes that this is more or less the truth. here’s a link about the promotion; Indu talking along with the cast.  The time has been set to Indu’s section which is a mix of English and Tamil

 https://youtu.be/_OitszPM8tc?t=1630

A short (cynical?) summary of the film told in the “usual style” will go something like this : Hindu boy falls in love with his Christian college mate and they decide to be together for the rest of their lives. However the girl’s parents have objections not only because of the religion but he is an officer in the Army and they don’t want any such relation. Mukund and Indu however are committed to each other and overcome all obstacles and marry each other.

He is posted to a high risk RR Unit in Kashmir and distinguishes himself in many operations . Finally, while capturing a wanted terrorist, he dies on the job and is awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest award for bravery during ‘peace time’ and equivalent to the Param Vir Chakra , which is awarded in wartime.

The story is however told engagingly and the pre ‘war’ half – where Mukund and Indu gradually fall in love and their trials and tribulations – is quite interesting. The locations of Chennai’s OTA – Officer Training Academy – plays a large part in the film as it is here that Mukund was commissioned . These scenes in the OTA , though few, are quite interesting.

It is in the Kashmir Ops scenes that all the standard masala of Hindi war films come through, most conspicuously the ‘good Muslims vs bad Muslim’ trope, which is worthy of a ph.D study in itself .  Very few Indian war films DO NOT have this trope ; here the Muslims fighting in Mukund’s platoon are Kashmiris who had surrendered and have proved their mettle in operations against the terrorists. As expected this leads to its own dramatic situation when one of them, Wahid , is kidnapped and Mukund and his team rescue him from a public beheading (we wonder whether it could really have happened like this).

The story of Mukund Varadarajan occupies around 20 pages in the book India’s Most fearless and this is cited as one of the sources for the film. Also extensive interviews with his colleagues and his wife are also cited . So all that’s shown onscreen is the truth, right ?

That’s the question that begs us as there are some events that really appear totally unbelievable, especially the one where Mukund is struck by a stray bullet from a jammed gun during firing practice. Rather than go to the military hospital, he goes to Kerala and gets operated by Indu’s father ? all in the span of two cuts ? How was he transported there ? In a civil plane as shown? This incident appears totally unbelievable. So too Indu crying while Mukund is in the middle of a firefight, as she can hear the firing sounds over the mobile. 

However , the production values and the blessing of Kamalahaasan and his Raaj Kamal Productions, shows its hands in the overall slick visuals , snappily edited to give lots of momentum to the story. There are portions that drag badly and we feel it could have been edited to about 2 hours and 15 minutes .

One very positive thing is that the dialogues are a mix of Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, English and the odd bits of Kashmiri, giving it an overall authentic feel. 

The action scenes are well done and here the Army’s hand , including use of real equipment and gear shows . Nothing seems amiss ; (at least I couldn’t spot any major goofs).  There are some disturbing scenes and the rioting by the Kashmiris is picturised very well. Shot on actual locations in Kashmir and Chennai, the realism is quite high. In the end it is a worthy tribute to a brave officer who gave his life and judging by the box office, the public has given a thumbs up to the movie.

The film ends with photos of the real Mukund and Indu, including Mukund singing the famous Bharathiyar poem “Achamillai Achamillai”. And the fact that his CO, Colonel Dabas, has kept his whatsapp profile pic the photos Mukund and his buddy Vikram.

Real History behind film – 4 out of 5

Script – 3 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Total – 3.8 out of 5