Apna Asmaan

A must see for all parents, specially those having special child... Although first feature film of the director, the portray of the emotional conflict and the journey of the principal characters have been dealt with significant finesse. The acting of Irfan, Sobana, Dhruv (Buddhi/Aryabhatta) and Barkha is excellent! So are the songs... Must see...

Credit goes to Kaushik for bringing such a fine and different film. You wouldn't see this kind of film being made in Bollywood nowadays. Performance by Irfan Khan (as always), Sobana, and Dhruv is definitely worth watching.

This movie interested me a lot because it had different but a good theme, which a lot of bollywood movies lack these days. This movie shows you how hard is parenting to a mentally-challenged child and the consequences you could face. It shows how parents dream of their children's success; hence sometimes they discourage their children's talents. I am not going to get much into this because I recommend watching this movie. It'll be a different experience indeed.

'Apna Asmaan' tries to deal with an interesting concept but turns out to be a big mess due to the uneven screenplay which emerges as somewhat pretentious and uninteresting. However, I would like to give credit to director Kaushik for choosing an interesting subject and making the film somewhat watchable. It does have some good moments and two very talented actors: Irfan Khan and Shobana.

However, this is far from Irfan's best work and yet he does well with his role but it's not as good as what he did in 'Deadline Sirf 24 Ghante'. Shobana is impressive and an actress like her deserves more. Dhruv really has a problem with delivering his lines and his loud at times. Rajat Kapoor is wasted.

The film starts off interestingly as it deals with the parents' struggle with their autistic son. Then at the interval portion, it takes a turn when the father injects the 'Brain Booster' into the son and things change. There's hardly any explanation for the drastic change in his behaviour. The doctor (Rajat Kapoor) later suspects that his limbic brain must be damaged but there's hardly a brain scan done on Buddhi to confirm anything. Also, quite conveniently the 'evil' doctor is easily found. Why is it a wrong thing to have your child go to a 'special' school where these children are taught skills and guidance to live? One can understand why parents are embarrassed but there is no need to be. All this issues are brought up but either dealt with in a half-baked manner or not at all. Oh there are just too many flaws in the story....

The film would have worked if it stayed with the initial focus which was the family's struggle with autism. It could have been carried out as a means to somewhat educate and to deal with the disorder and tell a compelling story. But now it is dealt with only in a superficial way. 'Apna Asmaan' tries to convey that it is more important to be a good human being than among the most intelligent of mankind but the storytelling is just poor and it somewhat gives a misguided message regarding autism (a misunderstood disorder in India).

Apna Asmaan asks a very important question to parents of modern days. Can the parents handle the change in the child, good or bad? Here, Buddhi(played wonderfully by Dhruv) gets a treatment of brain boosting which grants him superhuman intellect but also came with perks. To mention what happens then, would be a spoiler, but the most interesting part of the film is, though Buddhi gets a super human intellect, the main story evolves around the collateral issues that rises and how the happy life changes. The parents are wonderfully portrayed by Irfaan Khan & Shobhana. Irfan's underacting and the concerned mother Sobhana adds up to the intense humane story line. Anupam Kher plays a small but pivotal role. A special mention goes to Orko Roy for his paintings that featured as Buddhi's painting and acts as a tool of the story line. Wonderful story and scenario by the director Kaushik Roy.