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Story
This story happens in 1979 when the Skylab satellite from NASA disintegrated and the burning debris was falling on the earth. There is a village called Bandalingampally in Telangana. Gowri (Nitya Menen) is the daughter of dora (Landlord played by Narayana Rao). She wants to become a successful writer, but really sucks at writing. She returns to Village from Hyderabad as her father is unwell. Anand (Satyadev Kancharana) is a money-minded doctor whose medical license got revoked. His aim is to somehow earn enough money to bribe officials to get his licence back. Subedar Rama Rao belongs to a family of lineage. All his elders destroyed the wealth and left Ramarao with the task of loan repayment. Just when things are set in motion, there is news of skylab falling in South India. Rest of the story is all about the changes this incident brings to the people of Bandalingampally.
Artists Performance
Nithya Menen is the soul of the film and she performed excellently as a writer who invents herself in the time of crisis. Satyadev plays the role of a money-minded doctor who mends himself. He is a superb actor and he made sure that he stays within the boundaries of his character. Rahul Ramakrishna gives a sterling performance as a youngster who is troubled by family members. Vishnu OI (hero’s friend in Taxiwaala film) who did the role of Nithya Menen’s assistant deserves a special mention. His reactions to Nithya Menen are priceless. He has created subtle satirical humor with his performance. Tulasi looks different with her expressions in this movie. Narayana Rao, Subbaraya Sharma and Tanikella Bharani are good for their roles. All the actors are cast appropriately.
Technical departments
Story - screenplay - direction: Debutant director Vishwak Khanderao writes a story with lovable characters for a village consisting of innocent people. He has created ‘malgudi days’ kind of ambiance. The way main characters are introduced is very good. Director took his own time to establish the conflict. He designed characters and ambiance to match 1970’s. The humor is clean and it's generated out of innocent characters and innocuous situations. The director created a problem for each of the characters and he makes them discover a solution for it at the end. However, he didn’t show any gray shades to these principal characters. Though the character of Anand has some negative aspects in it, it’s not exploited well enough. There are a couple of interesting subplots in the film like the son of the maid wanting the toy place and an aged sculptor who wants to enter a temple, but is refused because of his caste. Both these threads are poignant. This film also observes how people blindly believe in superstitions. One can observe a faint inspiration in Srilakshmi’s character (writer) from Chantabbai film while penning Gowri character. There are many nuances in the film (rich people dwell in dried wells whereas maids sleep in the rich people's beds when Skylab is about to fall). Narration of the film is very slow. The director has made sure that he didn’t deviate from the main subject for the sake of entertainment. The last part of the film is good as all the characters acknowledge their problems and find solutions. However, the director should have come up with a more interesting narration to make this film likable for an average moviegoer.
Other departments: Background music by Prasanth Vihari breathes life into the film. It’s excellent. Cinematography by Aditya Javvadi is good with nice framing/composition. Dialogues written by Vishwak Khanderao are pure. There is a beautiful coordination between production designer (art director) Shivam Rao and costume designer Poojitha Tadikonda. You can see orange (and shades of red), teal and green colors dominate the screen in most of the scenes. You can see the colors of Nithya Menen’s house match with her costume when she arrives from Hyderabad in the first scene of the film. Editing should have been crisp. Production quality of the film is decent.
Analysis: Skylab is a film with a different story idea. It’s made with an artistic bent of mind without bothering about commercial aspects. The director has succeeded in narrating the film the way he wants. However, it might appear slow for most of the time. The humour is subtle and the intention is pure. However, it would have been commercially viable if the director had an engaging narrative than a plain one. On a whole, Skylab is not for everybody. It’s only for select audiences who understand nuances and aesthetics.
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