Garudan - Barely daring eagle!

 Garudan

Tamil / Drama 

133 min/ Prime Video

Such has been the year for Tamil cinema, half way through this year and this is only the second Tamil movie that i have watched this year  (after the Tamil version of Merry Christmas) !  The cupboard has been quite bare. 

Vetrimaaran, the awarding winning film maker is associated with the project as a writer(???) and producer.  Soori's  performance  as Constable Kumaresan in Vidhuthalai was startling. Probably the only reason i opted to watch this rural drama, knowing fully well what i might be getting into.

The story is as old as the hills (that explains the ???) - Two friends growing up together, protectors of the village deity. One of them is wealthy and the other  not as much. The not so wealthy friend brings up another orphan , who naturally  becomes their  "i will give blood for them" friend.

Queue the villain - A politician who wants to get old of some land in Chennai, which is owned by 

this temple and uses the opportunity to drive a wedge between the friends, by creating a favourable alliance with the not so rich one and lo and behold - there is betrayal and the realisation and the only thing to wonder is when all this blood shed will end!!

There are strong women characters (mercifully, but you have seen them all!) - the wealthy friend's wife- the voice of reason; a motherly woman who brings up both the friends and is the glue which keeps them together; the not so wealthy friend's jealous wife...gosh - stuff that we have seen tonnes of times, especially in Tamil movies. 

Sasikumar  (the wealthy friend) has made his career playing such characters - as usual he is earnest and does a fair job. Unni Mukundan is imposing and has to play the expressionless "not so wealthy" friend and he does a decent job. 

Soori is Sokkan - plays the orphan carrying the weight of loyalty  for his friend(s) and their family. He is terrific in his silences and does reasonably well in his emoting and rather unfunny bursts of truth telling. Oh, before i forget Samutharakani ( director of Nadodigal, one of the best movies in this genre and now almost full time actor ),  walking in from the sets of Visaranai .

The action is good as you would expect - the slow mo  fight scenes where the appendages break in new and innovative ways!! Is this a bad movie ? - by no means. It is fairly engaging-  pretty much 80/90's staple  rehashed for 2024. 

One very good performance  by Soori, backed by good supporting performances by Sasikumar and Mukundan. The movie is strictly for those who like rural dramas of the "Nadodigal, Subramanyapuram " types or  like me are cheering for Soori the actor (also sheepishly admitting to being conned into this being a Vetrimaaran story!).