Aakasamantha Movie Rating

Movie: Aakasamantha
My Rating: 3/5
Banner: Sri Venkateswara Films
Music: Vidya Sagar
Cinematography: Preetha
Story, Screenplay & Direction: Radha Mohan
Editing: Marthand k Venkatesh
Producer: Dil Raju
Cast: Prakash Raj, Trisha, Jagapati Babu, Ganesh Venkatraman, Aishwarya etc
Release Date: 27th March 2009

Review

Story

Raghuram (Prakash Raj) owns a tea estate in Coimbatore. He married Anu (Aishwarya) – love of his life. Their daughter is Abhi. It is a lovable family with absolutely no problems. Raghuram is excessively fond of his cute daughter. He tries to guide her in every small step she takes by being with her. She finds her father to be overbearing as she grows up and she expects her father to let her go in order to find her ground in the real life. In the process she falls in love with a guy when she is sent to New Delhi to pursue MBA. The rest of the story is how Raghuram takes it when Abhi gets her beau to his house.

Artists Performance:

Prakash Raj: Since entire film is told in a narrative pattern from Prakash Raj point of view, you will get to see Prakash Raj in 90% of the movie. He is an absolute delight to watch as a father. He balanced his comic timing with longing for his only daughter with unlimited ease. His body language during interview at school reminds us a bit of Mr. Bean’s.

Others: Three girls acted for the role of daughter at various growth levels. And all three girls look similar. The choice of these girls is perfect. Trisha and other two girls are cute. Trisha did extremely well in emotional scenes of second half. Ganesh Venkatraman is very good as Trisha’s beau. Aishwarya is demure as a lovable housewife. The guy who did the role of servant is commendable. Jagapati Babu did the role of a guy who listens to the memories of Prakash Raj in a park.

Technical Departments:

The time-frame of the story is around 25 years. The life story of a just born girl is shown till she graduates and finds her fiancée. The entire story is narrated in spaced flashback format where Prakash Raj narrates the story of his daughter to a stranger in a park. You can see certain similarities to the ‘Father of Bride’ character (Nuvve Nuvve in Telugu) in the second half. It is a difficult task to narrate a single thread of relationship between a father and a daughter. Director Radha Mohan comes up with a convincing screenplay to pull it off. Radha Mohan excels in showing sentiment scenes and a light humor episodes (especially Prakash Raj preparing for his daughter’s pre-KG interview). However, the pace goes down in the second half of the film. And the characterization of Prakash Raj character gets little confusing in the end as he keeps dillydallying about his future son-in-law.

Music of the film is average. Cinematography is excellent. The cinematographer captures the lush greenery around tea estates very well. Dialogues are sprinkled with humor and sentiment (Abburi Ravi seem to have penned few of the dialogues). Editing is adequate.

Final Analysis:

First half of the film is entertaining. Second half is bit slow and becomes little repetitive towards the end. Akasamantha is all about letting one’s daughter go. It is about the mental turmoil and confusion an over-possessive father goes through whenever her daughter takes the first step towards a new direction. The plus points of the film are Prakash Raj performance, entertaining first half and noble intention of making a clean film. On the flip side, the second half becomes overbearing. Producer Dil Raju should be appreciated for betting his money on a subject that lacks regular commercial elements and screenplay payoffs. On a whole, Aakasamantha is a different film made on relationships and has ingredients that appeal to the family crowds in A centers.

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