The opening sequence of 'Akashathinte Niram' has an old man (Nedumudi Venu) asking a young boy (Govardhan) what the color of the sky is. Blue, replies the small chap. The man suggests that the sky sports hues and shades that the mind would love to see. Quite an anticipatory bail for a film that is to follow for a couple of hours, that prompts the viewer to draw up assumptions and arrive at conclusions of their own.
Dr. Biju's new film follows a pickpocket (Indrajith) who lands up on an island inhabited by three individuals - an old man, a young boy and a deaf and dumb girl (Amala Paul). Not being able to sail back to the main land, the small time thief gives vent to his frustration by breaking things until eventually he learns a few lessons in life.
And by few, I mean a very few, that arrive at the fag end of the film. But by then, anyone who has been eying the proceedings attentively could have guessed where it's all headed. But for the first one and a half hours, the film resembles a ship that is lost in the blue sea that you get to see in abundance, sailing this way and that until the shore comes into view.
There have been similar attempts perhaps in world cinema, but what would set apart 'Akashathinte Niram' from a classic like 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter' is that the emotional density that makes the latter film a delightful watch is missing in the former. While every movement and every moment of silence holds tremendous implication in the Kim Ki Duk film, the extended periods of stillness in 'Akashathinte Niram' add up to the tedium.
The emptiness that spreads out into the sea that lies all around starts eating its way into the characters that inhabit the island in no time. You realize that that there is something mysterious about them, but the hollowness that make up their very being cannot be missed.
The hush and the calm that pervades three fourth of the film give way to some verbal clamor at the climax. Its as if there is a point to be made, and there is no way in which they want the message to go unnoticed. Statements on service and humanity are made, but these are things that we have heard aplenty before. The only difference is that they have been set on an island this time around.
Solid performances from the lead actors (which include a surprise cameo by Prithviraj) do try to drop in the anchor to this ship that has gone adrift in the ocean. M J Radhakrishnan's beautiful frames and a resplendent background score by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally serve as life savers as well.
'Akashathinte Niram' thus ends up a visually spectacular film that lacks something very vital - life! And there are too many voids lying all around it that thwart its attempts to come across as a believable experience.