The story of Gaganam is pretty new to Telugu cinema. It is a hijack drama with a bit of entertainment induced. Director Radha Mohan has two options to treat the movie. One is to make an intense drama with lots of action orientation. The other one is to make it a realistic film just the way it takes place in real life. Since it is going to be a serious film if he dealt in a realistic way, the director induced humor into the film in terms of a couple of characters on the flight and and Brahmanandam/actor characters in the negotiation room. He has chosen a few characters in the passenger list and created scenes about how they react in the time of hijacking. Screenplay of the movie is good with a nice twist in the interval. The following scenes of the film deserves appreciation
1. The argument between Nagarjuna and Harsha about media ethics. 2. The interval twist 3. The kid's thread 4. The new character's introduction towards climax
Background music by Praveen Mani is appropriate. KV Guhan has shot the movie using digital cameras and he comes up with a nice job. Art direction of Khadir is good with realistic sets. The set of the flight and airport was constructed in Ramoji Film City and there are hills present in the backdrop (just like in Tirupati). Dialogues by Umarji Anuradha complements the story. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh is nice. Producers Dil Raju and Niranjan (Matinee Entertainment) should be commended for putting their money on a different/non-commercial movie.
Gaganam film is made against many odds. There are no songs (duets/situational). There is no heroine. There are no different locations (90% of the movie takes place in airport). There are no mass dialogues. And it sports Nagarjuna, who is the most romantic hero of Telugu cinema playing the main character. A film of this nature should be appreciated as the success of these kind of movies will augment more and more novel films to be made. The plus points of the movie are Nagarjuna's presence, novel plot and realistic story telling. On the flip side, Telugu casting for small characters would have been good and humor orientation for a serious plot might dilute the effectiveness. On a whole, Gaganam is a decent film which should be watched with an open mind.
