Gaganam Review

Nagarjuna is an actor whose filmography includes every genre cinema world has to offer. Perhaps there are hardly any roles he hasn't done by now. Gaganam is one such pathbreaking cinema for an actor of Nagarjuna's stature. With no songs and typical commercial elements, the movie is 'different' in an industry that swears by formula movies.

Story

It is a simple story of a plane hijack and rescue operation by the commandos.Raveendra( Nagarjuna) is  an NSG Commando who is  on a mission to save the passengers from the Chennai to New Delhi bound flight. Home Secretary Viswanath(Prakash Raj) oversees the mission. The story is  on how  Raveendra leads  the mission, his  hurdles in nabbing the terrorists, his  coordination with the flight crew  and how  terrorists  are influenced.

Performances

Nagarjuna delivers his all time best performance. His body language, costumes and dialogue modulation befits the charecter he played in the film.He looks dignified and authetic as commando officer. Prakash Raj is impressive as Home Secretary. His action is intense and gets the audience to the edges of their seats. His experience as an actor reflects in every single frame in which he is seen. Poonam Kaur however has nothing much to do in the film. She leaves no impact on the audience. Bharath Reddy did justice to his small role. Since the movie is a bi-lingual, actors from both the languages were cast in this flick. Bramhanandam's histrionics calms down the audience in the film which is otherwise full of fast paced panic and 'what next?' moments.

Remarks

The director Radha Mohan deserves applause for the clap worthy narration. Though the story of hijacking a flight is as old as aeroplanes are, the way the story was told to the audience sets this film apart from the rest in its league. The costumes, the flight, the cumilative expressions of the passengers, the cinematography  by Guhan all are well intervoven and make the film worth watching. Guhan deserves kudos for capturing the feel of the script in his camera. The visuals of the flight, the commandos and the airport are realistic. Though there are no songs in the movie, the theme song composed by Devi Sri Prasad runs in the backdrop at several places and is tandem with the action packed thriller story. However, casting for the roles of terrorists could have been much better.The screenplay is fabulous and the way operation Gaganam was potrayed reflects the amount of homework the director has done on such missions in real life.The trauma of the passengers in the flight, the response from the government officials, the grief of the families was convincing.Outwardly, the film looks like other hijack dramas that ever released but the way the story sails through makes this one absolutely different.

Verdict

The movie is for everyone who craves for sensible cinema. It is path-breaking, racy and brilliant. Don't miss it.