Aakashagopurum: Castle in the Air!

Castle in the Air indeed! I would really like to write that it is an imaginary piece of indulgent crap by K P Kumaran. But in reality, its just crap. Let me spell it again CRAP.

One might ask, "Why so serious, Rockus?" Why am I serious? I had high hopes on this movie. I thought K P Kumaran was a serious (may be a bit indulgent) filmmaker with talent. Mohanlal is my favourite actor (across all languages). I was enthused by the quality team behind the movie (music by John Altman and camera by Santosh Thundiyil). I was awed by some brilliant promos and trailers. All done to death by some horrible writing and direction.

The movie starts of with some picturesque shots and some beautiful music. First scene is pretty good. Your spirits are up. Then as the subsequent scenes follow, you smell a rat and get a sinking feeling. After 10-15 minutes, you realise its hopeless.

Let me make it clear, the base story is terrific. Based on 'The Master Builder', a play by the Norweigian playwright Henrik Ibsen. From what I gather, the original play is a brilliant enquiry into human nature and inner demons faced by a successful man. What the movie ultimately transpires into is a mindless piece of crap. A word by word translation of the play into Malayalam. It does not feel like a movie at all, rather a play in some exotic locales. The dialogues are rubbish. No malayalee in the world speaks like this. Performers are helpless as the direction is clueless! Cardinal sin, since the movie boasts of awesome artistes like Mohanlal, Manoj K Jayan, Bharath Gopi, and Sreenivasan. The movie is devoid of the Director's art, which ultimately makes a movie watchable.

There are good points, though very few. Actors fit into the roles pretty well. Music is great. Camera work is breathtaking. The new girl Nitya is awesome. Looks damn beautiful and doesn't pale in the company of an actor like Mohanlal in terms of screen presence. She is a treat to watch and she is hot. She looks terrific. Yeah, yeah, she is my latest screen babe crush! :-P

Watch the movie for the visuals and Nitya. Nothing else matters.