Aakash (film)

Aakash is a 2005 Indian Kannada language romantic drama film directed by Mahesh Babu, written by Janardhana Maharshi and produced by Parvathamma Rajkumar. The film stars Puneeth Rajkumar, alongside Ramya, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kishore and Avinash. The music was composed by R. P. Patnaik, while cinematography and ediring were handled by Prasad Babu and S. Manohar.

At the Karnataka State Film Awards, the film won the Best Editor award for S. Manohar.

Plot
Aakash, a practical person working in various job fields, meets Nandini, a woman from rich background. Aakash and Nandini become friends and Nandini gets attracted to Aakash, but Aakash considers Nandini as her friend. However, Nandini's brothers Dayananda and Chidananda misunderstands Aakash to be in love with Nandini and begins to create havoc in Aakash's life, where Aakash loses his job and gets attacked. Aakash's sister Asha's engagement with Vishal gets broken due to Chidananda, who humiliates Asha.

Enraged, Aakash thrashes Dayananda and Chidananda in their house, which makes the duo determined to kill Aakash. Nandini leaves for Hubli for her friend's wedding, where Dayananda and Chidananda uses this opportunity to kill Aakash, but they find Aakash catching the train compartment in which Nandini is onboard. Dayananda and Chidananda hires hitmen to kill Aakash in the compartment as they believe that Aakash will follow Nandini, but Aakash left the compartment and Nandini is followed by a person named Devu.

The hitmen secretly attacks Devu and kills him. Aakash's purpose of arriving in Hubli is to convince Vishal's parents to reaccept Vishal and Asha's relationship. Nandini makes Vishal's parents to accept the relationship. Aakash thanks Nandini for her help, but declines her proposal as Nandini is from a rich family. Aakash takes Nandini back to her house and clears the misunderstandings with Dayananda and Chidananda. Nandini accepts the wedding proposal of her brother's choice and Chidananda hires Aakash as the wedding videographer on Nandini's request.

On the wedding day, Devu's father, who learnt that Dayananda and Chidananda are behind his son's death, tries to marry Nandini so that Devu will be reborn again. However, Aakash thrashes Devu's father and saves Nandini. Later, Chidananda and Dayananda request Aakash to marry Nandini. Aakash finally agrees, where he marries Nandini. Asha and Vishal also marry.

Production
The film marked the directorial debut of Mahesh Babu who earlier assisted Vijay Reddy, Kishore Sarja and M. S. Ramesh.

Soundtrack
R. P. Patnaik composed the film's background score and music for its soundtrack. The album consists of seven tracks. Lyrics for the 5 tracks were penned by K. Kalyan. And other 2 tracks, "Habba Habba" and "Hodi Hodi" penned by Sri Ranga and V. Nagendra Prasad respectively. The songs "Neene Neene" and "Aaha Entha Aa Kshana" became popular upon the audio release.

Reception
A critic from Sify wrote that "Akash is a clean family entertainer from the home production of Dr Rajkumar, the icon of Kannada cinema. Compared to his earlier four films, Puneeth Rajkumar has worked hard in this love story which has a message for the youth of today". A critic from Rediff.com wrote that "Akash is certainly an enjoyable film. Puneet's performance and Ramya's screen presence will remain in your memory for a long time".

Box office
Sify wrote, "This will be Puneeth’s biggest hit as in Mysore, Bangalore and Hubli, Akash is getting 95 percent collections right from the day of its release. Puneeth is a happy man and is surprised at the collection figures. Meanwhile Apthamitra collections have come down as two films Akash and Chandramukhi is taking over." The film ran for more than two-hundred days.