Yeh Khula Aasman is preachy and predictable, writes Preeti Arora.
Over the last few years, we have had two really successful sports films
Iqbal and
Chak! De India. So there was the fervent hope that directors and screenplay writers would make the effort and give us sweet feel-good movies where our protagonist would use both his mind and muscles to overcome all odds, where the underdog would one day triumph and take the trophy home. The sport could be cricket, hockey or
kabbadi as long as they could tell us the story convincingly, give us characters that we could cheer for.
But that optimism vanishes in the first five minutes of
Yeh Khula Aasman. And one can predict the grand finale. But debutante director Gitanjali Sinha believes in telling her story at a torturous pace.
Yeh Khula Aasmaan was touted as a sports film which it isn't. The most appropriate description which comes to mind is contrived melodrama that has random plot points strung together.
So we have the senior citizen pining for his family, the avaricious NRIs who are caught up in their pursuit for money, the parents who can't make time for the younger or the older generation, the faithful family retainer, the girl-next door and of course, the confused young protagonist. You get the gist
If the characters seem trite and clichéd, you need to hold on for a second till you catch a glimpse of the 'moral values' crammed into the 100-odd minutes (the duration of the film). The film gets preachy at this point.
Avinash (Raj Tandon)
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is in a bit of a dilemma. He hasn't managed to clear the IIT entrance exam. His parents live in London but he has been on his own in Mumbai. On an impulse, he decides to visit his ailing grandfather (Raghuvir Yadav). Seeing the old man's joy Avinash decides to stay on for a few days.