Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Sai Pallavi, Rahul Bose, Bhuvan Arora, Geetha Kailasam 

Crew: 
Inspired by India's Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes by Shiv Aroor, Rahul Singh 
                   & 
True incidents in the life of Major Mukund Varadarajan 
Music by G.V. Prakash Kumar 
Cinematography by CH Sai 
Editing by R. Kalaivanan 
Produced by Kamal Haasan, R. Mahendran, Vivek Krishnani
Written by Stefan Ritcher, Rajkumar Periasamy 
Directed by Rajkumar Periasamy 
Released on 31st October 2024 

Amaran has created a wave of anticipation among audiences with "Hey Minnale" song and "Sai Pallavi Intro" teaser. The movie has been successful in creating curiosity among people to watch it and Sivakarthikeyan's transformation, Vijay handing over "Thuppakki" to him, all added to the buzz. Legend like Kamal Haasan being the producer also made people expect that the movie will be authentic and genuine attempt at giving a fitting tribute to a martyr like Major Mukund Varadarajan. The movie released for Diwali and let's discuss about it in detail. 

Plot: 
Indhu Rebecca Varghese (Sai Pallavi) starts narrating her long-distance relationship with her husband Mukund Varadarajan (Sivakarthikeyan) equating their state with sea and the sky. She starts with their first meeting at college as a MA student. They both fall for each other as Mukund trains Indhu for fashion show competition. 

Their parents keep bringing Mukund's dream to join Army as the obstacle for their marriage. They overcome it but still as an army wife, Indhu has to get used to his absence while Mukund, being a braveheart throws himself first into combat zones. How did his life journey influence Indhu and people around him? Watch the movie to know more. 

Analysis: 
Sivakarthikeyan as Mukund is believable and his efforts are visible. Body transformation and his genuine attempt at being subtle and powerful come across well. Still, Sai Pallavi takes the cake with her innocence and strong emotional prowess. The chemistry between the leads and breakdown scenes of Sai Pallavi have been rendered in a heartwarming way. 

Among others Geetha Kailasam is good and while others are also good, none of them register. The sequences involving villains' backstory and their motivation could have been handled better. While not asking for over dramatising them, the makers could have tried to push the envelope a little bit more like Kamal Haasan's Drohkaal, Mani Ratnam's Roja, where villains are handled better. 

The action sequences, production values, background score by GV Prakash and songs all are well done. Major sequences have authenticity written all over it. Still, there are sequences that have been dragged to the tee and some characters being introduced to kill off, all don't add to the surprise or emotion factor. This aspect in the film could have been worked upon or like in Shershah, could have been avoided. 

The familiarity with a martyr's story is going to be a small diadvantage for the film.  Even more fast paced narrative could have combated the fatigue of watching many such "real hero" stories. While Amaran still stands out in being authentic and genuine, narrative could have been much better to give a dramatic high. 

In Conclusion: 
Amaran is an easy one-time watch for the efforts. 

Rating: 2.75/5