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Vimanam movie review: Samuthirakani starrer belongs in the ‘80s
Vimanam movie review: The story of Vimanam and the way it is executed feels dated and unrealistic.

Vimanam is the story of Veerayya (Samuthirakani), a handicapped man, single father raising his son Raju (Master Dhruvan) through honest hard work by running a Sulabh Shauchalaya in a colony near Hyderabad’s Begumpet Airport. Raju is an intelligent, well-behaved kid, who is excessively pre occupied with airplanes and dreams about a flight journey all the time. Auto driver Daniel (Dhanraj), his son Ainsteen, Cobbler Koti (Rahul Ramakrishna) and prostitute Sumathi (Anasuya Bharadwaj) are the other major characters in the colony. Veerayya keeps telling his son Raju that dreaming about air travel is an impossible task for the poor, but he can achieve that by studying well and getting a good job. Raju decides to study hard to become a pilot. His school teachers encourage him to take Sainik School entrance test. Raju clears the test, and gets a seat, paving way for his ultimate dream of boarding a flight.
At such a crucial junction, it is revealed that Raju is suffering from advance stage blood cancer, and may not live more than a month. The rest of the film is all about how Veerayya fights with circumstances, society, and people around him and also bad luck to realise his son’s dream of travelling by air. His friends Daniel, Koti and others also take part in the task Veerayya has taken up. Meera Jasmine plays a vital role as a flight attendant during the climax in a comeback for her after a long gap.
Sentimental features like Vimanam were mostly seen during the 70’s and 80’s, with maybe a few showing up in the 90’s too. The story of Vimanam and the way it is executed feels dated and unrealistic. The cobbler talks about earning hardly a hundred bucks in a day. The auto driver mentions Rs 300 as his entire day’s earnings. All these figures don’t add up in the current scenario. At least the makers should have mentioned that the story is happening 10 years ago or so, which they didn’t.
Comparisons with the 1993 classic Matru Devo Bhava are also inevitable, looking at all the hardships, bleak circumstances, unrelenting fate and the heavy ending. But the situations in Vimanam are artificial and somehow do not succeed much in making the audience feel bad for the plight of the son and father. The scenes surrounding Koti and Sumathi characters drag down the overall impact of the film every time they come up.
There is nothing much to find fault with Samuthirakani’s acting. Due to his own dubbing in Telugu, the impact of his performance has reduced to a great extent. Master Dhruvan did well. More screen time for the child actor and delving deeper into his psyche would have helped the film. Anasuya Bharadwaj’s character has a very narrow scope and is utterly out of place in the overall design of the film. If the character played a direct role in making the kid’s dream come true, it would have been justified. Few of her dialogues, including in the concluding scene are pure cringe. Motta Rajendran tries hard to add laughter, but the circumstances are utterly garish. Meera Jasmine has nothing much to do except looking angelic during the climax.
Vimanam is such a 80’s movie that it should have stayed there. Viewers who like sentimental movies, tearjerkers might like this film. They can try it when it comes on OTT.
Vimanam movie cast: Samuthirakani, Master Dhruvan, Rahul Ramakrishna, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Dhanraj, Motta Rajendran, Meera Jasmine, Thotapalli Madhu
Vimanam movie director: Siva Prasad Yanala
Vimanam movie rating: 2 stars


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