Skylab

Skylab (2021)

Written and Directed by: Vishwak Khanderao
Starring: Nithya Menen, Sathyadev, Tanikella Bharani

When I first heard of the premise of the film through a friend, I was really excited. I saw the trailer, and I saw something different than what I had expected out of the film. The trailer had a nice, slice of life tone to it but it was not quite dealing with the premise. The film does exactly the same that the trailer showed. The film uses the incident of Skylab as a setting and merely as a backdrop, it doesn't use it as a conflict or a story element. The film instead explores characters within the setting of Skylab. In spite of the tone being really warm and nice, and the amazing execution of the film - it felt like the film was introducing the characters for 70% of the film. I felt like there wasn't much happening, and they had an amazing premise right there. They could've done so much more with it. Tanikella Bharani's track was beautiful. Nithya Menen's track was also beautiful. Rahul Ramakrishna's track was also beautiful. But the way they were placed with respect to the core idea of the film 'Skylab' was what could've been done differently so that we'd have felt the stakes throughout, which would've resulted in a more emotionally satisfying experience.

The film became emotionally satisfying in the last 20 minutes of the film - because we see the characters having an arc, and we get a beautiful sense of closure. The cinematography was beautiful - it had a haze to it throughout which added a nice dreamy touch to the world, giving it a slight fantasy sense. The dialogue was so musical and wonderful to listen to. The acting of every character was really good, the way they performed is what created a unique tone to the film. The last 20 minutes of the film made the experience worthwhile.