Gaganam Review

“Gaganam” is one such movie of the season starring big star Nagarjuna as hero and at the same time promises to shun the regular commercial format of Telugu Cinema. This movie is produced by Dil Raju and Directed by Radhamohan (Who directed critically acclaimed “Aakasamantha”). Tamil Version “Payanam” is produced by Prakashraj who played a crucial role in the film. Movie already received good critical applause but yet to receive audience response in a huge way!!

Plot: Gaganam is a thriller based on the plane hijack. A plane travelling from Chennai to Hyderabad is hijacked by group of terrorists. They demand the release of a terrorist Yousuf Khan and threaten to blast the plane.

Movie covers the panic situation of the people sitting in the plane, the anguish faced by their family members. A Rescue plan planned by Raveendra (Nagarjuna) to save the passengers and TRP craving media trying to exploit the situation. And a big twist awaiting us at the Interval bang!!

Actors

Nagarjuna is one man army of this movie. He is the heart of this film. The conviction with which he played the role shows his immense belief in the movie. He had no inhibitions to shirk his image and play different whether say “Annamayya” or “Geetanjali” etc. And he proved it yet again with Gaganam.

Prakash Raj has less presence but is very good as home secretary.

All the actors who acted as passengers have done extremely well. As they are mixture of Tamil and Telugu, we can identify few of them. Sana Khan who is seen in Kathi with KalyanRam played a passenger and she is good. Her co-passenger, a doctor who befriends her is good. Thalaivasal Vijay played retired colonel. Poonam Kaur as air hostess is just ok.

It’s good to see Prithvi (Pelli fame) and comedy actress SriLakshmi after long time.

Brahmanandam had some funny role to play in second half. Harshavardhan is good as journalist.

Very Nice Human drama

Director Radhamohan is no doubt a good writer in first place. He is good in capturing the emotions and he proved it in Aakasamantha. Director writes the screenplay so tight that you are engaged every moment. Apart from that he imbibes good fun that you never miss entertainment in the process.

He created several small and cute threads…A Movie Hero-and his fan who believes that his idol could mash up the goons in single shot, a cute young pair and how friendship blossoms between them, an Astrologist and a young man and a bond that forms between small girl and the terrorist.

And there is a central minister, A Retired Colonel, A church father, a mimicry artist to cater different walks of society and they are all effective.

Two Hours are just too good…

Movie spans two hours…First hour introduces the characters and the begin of Hijack and the entire reaction. A Nice twist gives us the interval bang. Good tempo is maintained in second half with some heart touching moments...and then a clever plan to rescue the passengers. Rather than calling edge of seat thriller, you can call it gripping enough!!

Crispy dialogues by Umarji Anuradha (Ye maaya chesaave) are very good. Some are touching and thought-provoking especially the one’s said by small girl and church father. Pravin Mani’s excellent background score and KV Guhan’s cinematography are just awesome.

Gaganam is still a fresh effort

Ok...We have seen this sort of movies in Bollywood much before…We have seen several hijack dramas…or movies like A Wednesday and of course having no songs is not even new to us. We had “Aithe” some time back and many experimental films like Neelakanta’s show and Eenadu (A Wednesday dubbed version etc). But Gaganam is yet again a different one especially for Telugu audience.

Having no songs is a very huge plus point to this movie and director concentrates wholly on the plot. Don’t worry you are not just strangled in the plane, but movie shifts to external world quite number of times. There is equal drama outside the plane, thanks to Brahmanandam. I am not revealing his role as it should be watched on screen.

Drawbacks I consider a few. Like some silly discussions with old people sitting in the discussion room in airport is little funny.

Final Say…

I guess people still have misconception that movie devoid of songs might disappoint them and that is reflected in comparatively poor response on first day. But please don’t miss a good film and I am sure you will be thoroughly engaged. I strongly believe movie will pick up very soon. I had personal experience of watching Annamayya in theatre in Hyderabad on first day with just 10 people.

Rating

3.75 for honest effort…Hats off Nagarjuna and Kudos Dil Raju and Prakshraj for producing such a nice movie.