Aakashamittayee

The intention and the message the film Aakashamittayee is trying to convey is obviously genuine. But it is the extremely unreal making that makes this movie an underwhelming experience. The theme here is very much similar to the Hindi film Taare Zameen Par which urges parents to look for the talent in kids rather than the grades. But this remake of 2016 Tamil movie Appa is full of caricatures and that is something a sensible content doesn’t want.

A middle class man decides to provide all the freedom to his son in his process of growing up. He sends his son to a government school, encourages him in extracurricular activities and tries to be his friend. On the other hand his senior officer was adamant on making that man’s son number one in every place. The film eventually shows us the bitter side of strict parenting and the necessity of being a good parent who encourages the talent in their kids.

Honestly I forgot the name of the character played by Jayaram in the film. I am saying this because the narration here is that shallow. Trying to reach the epitome of characterizations, the film reaches an annoying level of unreal sentiments. Taare Zameen Par is a classy example on how effectively a film can be made on this subject. Even the comedy film Makante Achan managed to convey the message in a better way. Here Padmakumar and Samuthirakani have no interest in making this movie in an impactful way. Appa itself was an average melodrama. When I heard that they are remaking it, I expected certain sensibility shifts in the content and that wasn’t there at all.

Jayaram as the preaching role model cool father looks more real than Samuthirakani in the original. All the child artists are struggling to cop up with the extreme unreal dialogues and drama their characters go through. Audience at some areas was laughing seeing the clichéd nature of certain dramas. Compared to the annoying performance of Thambi Ramaiah, Kalabhavan Shajon here makes the character offered to him look a little more sensible. Sarayu, Iniya, Irshad, Anil Murali etc. are the other main actors in the film.

The film is directed by Samuthirakani and M Padmakumar and the sad part is they haven’t tweaked the movie to suit the sensibilities of Malayalam audience. The conviction level of scenes is really poor. The message of the movie that tells parents not to force their dreams on children is appreciable, but the approach towards that serious topic was only on the surface level. The screenplay’s excessive goodness and advising nature makes the movie almost feel like those “Sorry Shaktiman” portions of Shaktiman. It would have been better if they tried to recreate dialogues keeping the soul of the original ones instead of just translating them. Cinematography was okay. The music and background score were pretty ordinary.

If you think Appa was a really good film, then you should watch Aakashamittayee. For me Appa was an average Tamil film and Aakashamittayee was a below average underwhelming remake. The message was a good one, but the making here is an extremely unimpressive one.

Rating: 2/5