Aakasa Veedhullo Movie Review: A film for the youth

Aakasa Veedhullo charts the story of Siddhu (Gautham Krishna), a young man who aspires to pursue a career in music while his father (Devi Prasad) wants him to aim for something big. His father makes futile attempts to influence Siddhu's thoughts and scolds him for his inability to find a good job on his own. After a fight, Siddhu decides to leave the home for a while so that the problem between him and his father would abate. During his trial shift, Siddhu falls in love with Nisha (Pujita Ponnada) and wants to go in for a live-in relationship with her. Much to his dismay, Nisha doesn't believe in love and begins to ignore him. A depressed Siddhu starts using drugs and alcohol to ease his pain. What happens next? Can Siddhu win back his love? Will he be able to chase his dream and come out successful is what Aakasa Veedhullo is all about.

Cast: Goutham Krishna, Pujita Ponnada, Devi Prasad
Director: Gautham Krishna

An anguished young man, who is dealing with love failure and facing resistance from his father for his deeds sounds too familiar for our audience. But Gautham Krishna (also the director of the film) has presented it in a manner that is different from run-of-the-mill Telugu films. The film looks at the social fabric issues through its characters and Gautham's emphasis on Gen Z's thoughts, their struggle to deal with conflicts, and not acting in the direction of their parents was presented well. However, a father and son relationship is like an intense equation, but Gautham couldn't back that intensity and knitted an emotional story where feelings are surface-level.

Gautham has chosen a complicated yet challenging story for his debut film and he has succeeded in entertaining the audience but conveys his message through hackneyed lines rather than the screenplay. Aakasa Veedhullo talks about two things: finding one's talent while standing against all odds and giving all out to achieve a goal.

The film's first hour coasts along breezily, benefitting from comedy and impressive performances. In fact, this hour has a bunch of endearing moments, and the first-time director seems more capable of handling these conventional scenes. It's admirable that he has maintained a consistent pace in this hour before smoothly unravelling the actual drama. As the humour dries up, the second hour moves on a slow and steady pace and slips into a full-blown melodrama and sentimentality. There is absolutely no question that humour works better than emotion in this film. The film doesn't go off the rails when the tone shifts, it's because the actors stay sincere and committed as the narrative progresses.

The heart of the film is its cast anyway. Gautham Krishna perfectly fits into the character and he roots his performance in believability. Pujita Ponnada is reliable and delivered a nuanced performance, besides oozing enough oomph to set one's pulse racing in a couple of songs. Her chemistry with Gautham is appealing and both complemented each other in some of the best scenes of the film.

Srikanth Iyengar and Devi Prasad lend credibility to the story with their natural flair for acting, while Satyam Rajesh makes his presence felt and provides some comic relief.

Vishwanath Reddy's wide lens artistically captures the beautiful locales of Goa and makes one feel nostalgic if you are familiar with the area. Judah Sandy's riveting music and background score perfectly compliment the youthful vibe and are in sync with the director's vision. In fact, by typical Telugu cinema standards, Aakasa Veedhullo is an above-average film with impressive performances and solid production values.

Despite its predictability and sluggish second hour, the film offers an occasionally touching experience that has the audience leaving the theatre caught up in the excitement of triumph.