Vimaanam review: outshadowed with melodramatic clichés

Vimaanam has unbearable amount of melodrama to its credit. The real life story of Saji Thomas had a lot to do with his ability to create an airplane by surpassing the limitations but this Pradeep M Nair movie sheds less light on that aspect and tries to focus on an over ambitious filmy love story which never excites the viewer. Except for the production quality, Vimaanam doesn’t live up to the reputation of Magic Frames.

Venkidi aspired to travel in a self-made airplane from his childhood itself. He had a mentor to guide him. His girlfriend Janaki and his uncle were also supportive of this dream which most others ridiculed as stupidity. The film Vimaanam shows us the efforts of Venkidi to make the plane and how his wish to fly it along with Janaki came true.

Pradeep M Nair’s writing is a key limiting factor here. The unsurprising screenplay makes it a template inspirational story with no real excitement. The cheesiness in presentation with all those dramatic tones makes it even more difficult to digest. Towards the end Venki is turning a road in to runway and is also landing his two seater plane in to an airport. Those were the areas where one would scratch their heads.

The typical dramatic acting style of Prithviraj was a major flaw. The dialogue delivery and body language never looked convincing. Durga Krishna was good in terms of expressions and the dubbing artist made that character more natural. It was a bit sad to see people like Sudheer Karamana and Alencier Lopez struggle with dialogues. Ashokan and Saiju Kurup have got cardboard characters.

Just like I said, the focus on love derails the film into a totally unreal zone. Fictionalization of a true story almost becomes a predictable fairy tale. While Aby, the movie that came with similar theme respected the hero’s passion for flying, Vimaanam from Pradeep M Nair was struggling to get that focus. A lot of the technical difficulties in the process have got skipped. The makeup was weak. The cinematography was average and the music was fine.

The decision of the makers to focus on the love story part instead of the real challenge of making an airplane limits Vimaanam considerably and thus becoming an underwhelming experience on the whole. This will be the least impressive Malayalam film produced by Listin Stephen.

Vimaanam would have had a smooth and comfortable flight if they had decided to focus on the efforts on flying. Produced by Listin Stephen, Vimaanam is one movie that is struggling to stay away from clichés.