16. Vimaanam; movie review

VIMAANAM
Cert PG
145 mins

BBFC advice: Contains mild bad language, violence

Good news. The first week of everyfilm in 2018 has resulted in a clean sweep. All movies which have been listed, have been seen.
There have also been a handful of crackers among the year's early releases.
I have to say that Pradeep M. Nair's Vimaanam (or Aeroplane in English) is not one of them. It is an overblown romance which will not linger long in the memory.
Indeed, typical of too many Indian movies, it wastes much of its first half and only really grabbed Mrs W and me in its final 45 minutes or so.
Essentially, Vimaanam is a Malayalam film inspired from the true story of a deaf youth named Saji Thomas who built an aircraft on his own. 
However, it turns into one about a young man (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and woman (Durga Krishna) who grew up as friends and are desperate to be together.

Inevitably, her father disapproves of a potential marriage and wants his daughter to be wed to a fella (Saiju Kurup) whom she loathes.
When I write 'inevitably' because it continually strikes me that, if Indian films are to be believed, there isn't a father in the country who was either young once or would accept a love marriage.
Almost always, they choose a dire alternative.
In this case, his choice is a charmless bully whereas his daughter's true love is a local hero. Why would he make such a dimwitted choice?
Nair's film flits between three moments in time - the present when Sukumaran's character receives a national award in honour of his work for the Indian Air Force, the distant past, when he was growing up and was bullied at school for being deaf, and his time as a young man when he became obsessed with designing an aeroplane.
The most exciting element of the movie is the latter when our hero enlists the help of several villagers despite the doubts of many.
As said, the trouble is that it takes far too long to reach the juice of the story.
Sukumaran and Krishna are pleasing enough in the lead roles but there is too much padding and I also found the song and dance routines rather tepid.

Reasons to watch: if you are a sucker for Indian cinema romances
Reasons to avoid: goes over very familiar ground

Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 6/10

Director quote - Pradeep M. Nair: "As far I am concerned, Vimaanam is a film that I really loved doing. It came to me in 2012. Everyone associated with Vimaanam has complete conviction in the film."


The big question: ~ Are Indian fathers always as one dimensional as they are portrayed in movies?

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