Film

Soorarai Pottru

A Tamil-language drama about an ordinary man who dreams of launching a budget airline to democratize flying in India. It's a fiercely earnest underdog story, part romantic, part political, anchored by Suriya's committed performance. For anyone who loves films about ordinary people doing extraordinary things against staggering odds.

TMDb rating3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love underdog stories built on stubborn persistence, where the pleasure comes from watching one determined person grind against a rigged system and the sharp dialogue that carries the fight.

Skip it if you want a lean, fast-moving action film; at nearly two and a half hours it lingers on business negotiations and personal setbacks between its bigger set pieces.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, character-led ride that lets scenes breathe, with the emotional weight building slowly rather than arriving in quick bursts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Erin Brockovich2000

A woman with no formal qualifications takes on a massive corporation and wins. Like Maara, it's about an outsider using cunning and determination to fight an entrenched system, with real emotional stakes and a hugely charismatic lead.

But It's very American, very 2000s, and Julia Roberts' performance can feel a touch broad compared to Suriya's grounded intensity.

Erin Brockovich poster

The Founder2016

Michael Keaton plays a man building a business empire from nothing, facing skeptics and powerful enemies. Shares Maara's DNA: obsessive ambition, industrial transformation, the cost of dreaming big, and a supporting cast that grounds the fantasy.

But It's a portrait of ruthlessness and moral compromise—if you want your underdog pure-hearted, this will disappoint you.

The Founder poster

Dangal2016

Another Hindi-language film about an outsider taking on India's established systems. Aamir Khan plays a man who transforms his family's circumstances through sheer force of will. The scale, the emotion, the intimate family story alongside the bigger fight—it's the closest cousin to Maara's register.

But At over three hours, it's a commitment, and the wrestling sequences may feel repetitive if you're not invested in the sport.

Dangal poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Soorarai Pottru

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Right Stuff1983

Both are about ordinary men becoming mythic by refusing to accept that something is impossible, and both are careful to show the wreckage this creates in their personal lives.

A sprawling epic about American astronauts in the Space Race—ordinary men doing the impossible through obsession, engineering, and stubborn will. But it's also about the personal cost: careers, marriages, the gap between public triumph and private devastation. Maara's dream is aviation, but both films understand that transforming an industry means transforming yourself, often painfully.

But It's three-and-a-half hours, ambitious in every direction, and some threads (the test pilot culture, the Chuck Yeager subplot) may feel peripheral to the NASA narrative.

The Right Stuff poster
More like this (8)

Rocky1976

The template for every underdog story that followed. A man nobody believes in gets one shot. Maara remixes this formula for aviation and modern India, but the emotional architecture—self-belief, mentorship, the fight itself as metaphor—comes straight from here.

But If you've seen it a dozen times already, the familiarity might undercut the power.

Rocky poster

Chak De! India2007

Shah Rukh Khan leads a team through impossible odds to change India's sporting landscape. Like Maara, it's about reclaiming national pride, uniting divided people, and one man's unshakeable conviction becoming contagious.

But The sentiment runs thick and unapologetic—if you're allergic to patriotic fervor, this won't win you over.

Chak De! India poster

127 Hours2010

James Franco in a true story of a man alone against nature, fighting with every ounce of ingenuity and will. The intimacy and intensity of watching someone refuse to quit, matched by a restless visual style that mirrors mental determination.

But It's claustrophobic and brutal. The suffering is not softened, and some viewers find it punishing rather than inspiring.

127 Hours poster

October Sky1999

A working-class boy in 1950s West Virginia builds a rocket while his father works coal. It has Maara's exact emotional frequency: ordinary people, transformative ambition, family tension, and the specific joy of making something that shouldn't exist.

But It's quieter and more measured than you might expect—if you want big dramatic confrontations, the climax may feel underplayed.

October Sky poster

Kahaani2012

A Bengali woman navigates Kolkata's systems alone, using wit and nerve to achieve her goal. Like Maara, it's supremely local and deeply political, with a protagonist who outsmarts everyone in the room through character rather than resources.

But The twist ending divides viewers—some find it earned and clever, others feel it recasts everything that came before in ways they resist.

Kahaani poster

Natrang2010

A Marathi-language film about a man's obsessive pursuit of art and legacy in rural India. It shares Maara's texture—the specific friction of tradition against ambition, the cost of dreaming in a place that doesn't reward it, anchored by an unforgettable central performance.

But It's deliberately slow and circling rather than propulsive. If you need narrative momentum to stay engaged, it will feel frustratingly digressive.

Natrang poster

Shoplifters2018

Both insist that ordinary people—those outside power, without connections—deserve agency and story. Both find nobility in the struggle itself, not just in victory.

A Japanese film about a makeshift family surviving through small crimes and mutual loyalty in Tokyo's margins. It's quieter than Maara and far less triumphalist, but it has the same deep belief in dignity for people the system overlooks. Watch how Hirokazu Kore-eda builds tenderness and politics from the smallest moments.

But It's slow, contemplative, and ends with ambiguity and loss rather than vindication. If you need your underdog to win, this will feel like a betrayal.

Shoplifters poster

The Ascent1977

Both are about men whose convictions are tested against the world's resistance, and both ask whether stubbornness and faith are the same as wisdom.

An Andrei Tarkovsky film: two Soviet partisans trek through snowy forests toward an execution, and it becomes a meditation on faith, sacrifice, and the weight of conviction. Completely different in scale and tone, but Maara shares its obsession with what it costs to believe in something larger than yourself, and whether that belief survives contact with reality.

But It's glacially slow, philosophically dense, and ends in martyrdom. It's the opposite of a plot-driven film—if you watch for story momentum, you'll be frustrated within ten minutes.

The Ascent poster

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Recommended by

Ratsasan, Kaithi, Velaiyilla Pattathari, Velaikkaran, Master, Valimai, Mandela, Velaiyilla Pattathari 2, Pasanga, Bhooloham, Vel