Review of movie Antariksham 9000 KMPH

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Rating:2.5/5

After directing a film like Ghazi, expectations were high on Sankalp when it came to his space thriller Antariksham, maybe even unreasonably so. While space films are a genre extremely rare in Indian cinema, let alone Telugu, the director must be lauded for even attempting to pull off something that’s no mean feat. But, does his film work? Unfortunately for him and the audience, it only works in bits and pieces.

Dev (Varun Tej) is an astronaut whose whole world revolves around his baby – a moon orbiting satellite called Viprayan – and his girlfriend, a teacher called Parvati (Lavanya Tripathi). But an unforeseen incident turns his whole world upside down and he goes incognito for five whole years, choosing instead to teach science at a school in Rameshwaram. But when satellite Mihira is found to have the potential to wreak havoc with communications worldwide and causing debris, he is brought in by his old colleagues Riya (Aditi Rao Hydari) and Mohan (Srinivas Avasarala). But what makes a previously unconvinced Dev return to the Indian Space Centre? 

Sankalp takes his own sweet time in the first half, bringing us up to date with the events that led up to Dev being brought back to the Indian Science Centre. While there are few scenes that seem to be placed for the sake of it and few others that might be too much information for a layman to follow, the director does a good job of exploring relationship dynamics and even fleshing out his characters well enough for us to care about them when they’re in distress. The issue unfortunately hits when it comes to making the drama in space engaging enough.