Big B praises 'Udaan', calls it fresh breeze of air

New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has heaped praise on debutant director and his son Abhishek's schoolmate Vikramaditya Motwane's new film 'Udaan'.

'Vikramaditya Motwane, a school mate of Abhishek has directed this film. His only prior credential has been that he was an assistant to Sanjay Leela Bhansali. A young man, who had come some years ago to me with a marvellous script, has directed this venture of his with the maturity that one does not expect to see from one on his debut venture,' Amitabh wrote on his blog bigb.bigadda.com.

'In all the noise and thunder of the popular cinema now prevalent, this film comes as a fresh breeze of air. Its simplicity is brimming over with the intensity of its content,' he added.

Starring Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy, Aayan Boradia and Ram Kapoor, the film released Friday and received favourable reviews from the critics. It is about a rebellious kid who after being expelled from boarding school is forced to live with his authoritarian, oppressive father in the steel town of Jamshedpur.

Amitabh also revealed that veteran actress Shabana Azmi had asked him to watch the movie.

'The film had received encouraging critical reviews and personal recommendations from the likes of Shabana Azmi and many others. And I have to say that, even though generally a suggested film carries praise even before one has seen it, and that such praise does make one apprehensive and pre-programmed to like the product, I found that the film deserved the accolades it was getting,' he wrote.

'Bringing an audience into the framework of the story is not an easy task. I thought it was extremely brave of the director to be able to achieve that. Apart from the novelty of the presentation of the film, the matter that stands out is the performances from each and every artist,' he added.