Akashagopuram

Castles in the air, they are so easy to take refuge in. And so easy to build as well - Henrik Ibsen

There was something about the trailers and and the few seconds in which they showed the characters of the story that makes the viewer want to watch this movie even though it is of a parallel cinema genre.

Akashagopuram can be summarised in a couple of words:
Type: A European drama spoken in malayalam.
Story : The old Perunthachan story with some small tweaks here and there.

If one goes to the theater with a mindset of watching a malayalam movie i guess you are going to be dissappointed. But viewing it as an English drama, its certainly commendable and to imagine so much has been done with an entirely malayalee cast, maybe it would be better to say the western technicians and crew have done their job excellently.

Performances are all too subdued with limited dialogues. It is supposed to give the viwer the feeling of the torrent of emotions bubbling within each character.The casting is almost perfect and fits to the T. Veterans like Mohanlal and Bharat Gopi have all done their job well and as expected. Newcomer Nitya is the real revelation in the movie. She has the second most important role in the movie after Mohanlal.

Akashagopuram gives quite a few dissappointments and some of those are :
~The house which is supposed to be the architechts "best work ever" looks more in shape like an ant-hill turned into a house than a collosal building it is supposed to be.
~The dialogues could have been modified a small bit to suit an indian audience, like maybe avoiding the usage of MR. MS. in front of everone names. Also the ettiquets followed by every character giev sa feeling of a few decades back.
~There are some mismatches here and there like the dating of the movie. While most of the movie gives the viewer the impression that it is set in the modern world with flat screen conputers and swanky cars, many things like Nityas costumes are certainly dated and not the type worn by 20+ GenNext ppl.
~In an era of skyscrapers and coutries competing to build the worlds tallest building, a young girl getting awed by a tall church building are few of the things that do not sink in easily and gives a certain confusion about which decade the story is set in.

On the whole the movie seems to be tailor made with a stifled view to bag a couple of critics awards or soem 'arty' awards. But as to how much it will score is yet to be seen.