Jan 01, 2009 06:06 PM
2264 Views
Literary works from foreign source are rarely made into films here. At least Malayalam movies make such movies in long intervals. We have even seen 'Othello' as Kaliyattam, the recent 'Ore Kadal' and now Henrik Ibsen's classic work 'The Master Builder' blossoms into 'Aakasa Gopuram'. And already his 'Enemy of God' has been made as 'Ganashatru' by the great Satyajit Ray himself. Eminent directors have already filmed his plays, and I remember seeing 'The Doll's House' by Fassbinder.
It is a tale of an eminent builder who has built a name for himself with his high focused professionalism.He has started his life from scratch Yet, he is arrogant in behavior, moody and his family life is rather gloomy, with the loss of two children in birth.
He has surpassed his one time employer, who is now at his mercy along with his brilliant architect son Alex, who craves for a break. Samson never allows him to go on his own way. He refuses to sign and acknowledge an independent project of Alex and this makes the old father fall in deathbed out of grief.
Samson's wife Alice spends disturbed nights, and whenever she wakes from her nightmares, she always witnesses the scene of her husband standing near the window gazing through the blue night, his dream project that is under construction.
He is on the way of building a mansion, with a tower, of which he often changes the sketch. He is so arrogant, that even after a major accident at the site, he just orders others to continue their work. He has a way with young girls, and you can say the same thing with Alex's fiancee, Catherine.
Hilda Verghese, a teenager visits him, and she has an interesting story to quote. Samson has built a great structure in her hometown a decade back, and from then he is her rollmodel. Her stay creates many minor issues. Samson and Hilda share a rare relationship. And when she makes him acknowledge Alex's plan, it is too late. The old man has gone into a coma.
The day of the inauguration of the mansion arrives. To the astonishment of guests, Samson climbs the tower , to adorn it with a garland. And he slips to death from there.
It is a typical Ibsen work, with the search of fathomed depths of human minds, and when they are visualized on the Malayalam Screen, what we see is a different version of actors and scenes crafted by the serious director K.P.Kumaran, who has given us films like 'Rukmani'. Mohanlal as Samson has given a stellar performance. His style of walking, speech and every other thing gleams with the bossiness that he is expected to deliver.
He is really a world class actor. Swetha Menon as his wife Alice, looks very tired to suit her role, and is very different from her glamour girl image. Bharat Gopi plays the old employer and Manoj K.Jayan as the suave young architect son. Geethu Mohandas as Catherine and Nithya as Hilda , too give realistic performance. The great surprise is Sreenivasan as Dr. Isaac and he proves he is a veteran at the game.
The greatest scoop of the film is its Music Director is John Altman, who also composed the period music for "Titanic". His soul filling music is an asset to this movie. Cinematography by Santhosh Thundyil is another asset. One scene I cannot forget is Gopi lying on a bed.
This is a true international movie. Nowhere in the film the characters' nationality is revealed, and there is nothing related to Kerala. The characters seemed to be rooted in the country they are shown living. The movie is strictly for serious watchers.
There is nothing for a regular film buff. Most of the time the lengthy dialogues remind us , that this is pure theater stuff. After watching the film, I realized that I have seen this film, just for the sake of watching something serious, and nothing more than that.
