Apna Aasmaan

DIRECTOR: Kaushik Roy

Would you offer up your child as a hapless guinea pig to a charlatan, regardless of the cost? In their desperate, never-ending quest for a miracle, Ravi and Padmini (Irrfan and Shobhana) inject an unproven substance into their mildly autistic son, with consequences they are unable to handle.

First-time director Kaushik Roy mines his own experiences with son Orko to bring alive the screen Buddhi, as well the larger, universal theme of all parents wanting a 'normal', intelligent child. Adman turned filmmaker Roy lives that life, and he's been able to transmit that essence into his story with sensitivity.

Some of the touches are superb: a neighbourhood shopkeeper trying to gyp Buddhi (Dhruv Panjwani), the slights that even so-called educated people keep passing off as concern, and the constant attrition that wears down Ravi and Padmini — he takes refuge in fictitious official meetings and alcoholic soliloquies; she treats Ravi with increasing disdain and anger.

Despite counsel to the contrary from the boy's doctor (Rajat Kapoor), she blames the father for Buddhi’s condition; he feels done against and helpless, something that Irrfan is so good at playing. The actors are all very good, including the untrained debutant Dhruv.

Post interval, though, when the slow learner turns into a raging genius, the film becomes disquieting. Through a disastrous side-effect of the medication, Buddhi loses his emotional moorings, and transforms into a self-absorbed, vicious teenager. It may well have been a plot twist keeping in mind commercial compulsions, but by giving it so much weight, the director runs the risk of equating the wish for a regular child ‘going to a big-boys school’, with getting a dysfunctional out-of-control young person.

But the end, even if a trifle improbable, brings the film back on track. The old Buddhi returns, and this time the parents’ joy is tempered by understanding, and appreciation, and acceptance. And that’s the strongest, sweetest take-away from Apna Aasmaan: it's not about oh-god-this-is-my-lot resignation, but about loving living.