Aakashagopuram Malayalam Movie

K.P. Kumaran's Akashagopuram, an adaptation of the world famous play 'The Master Builder' by Henrik Ibsen, is a complex and multilayered film. Shot extensively in the U.K, the film also gains attention from the fact that it witnesses the coming together of highly talented people in all departments. If it's British composer John Altman (of Titanic fame) who is in charge of the music department, it is Santhosh Thundiyil (of Krrish, and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai fame) who cranks the camera for Akashagopuram.

Director K.P. Kumaran, who began his career in Cinema with the likes of Adoor Gopalakrishnan and who has given us memorable films like Kaattile Pattu, Athithi, Rugmini, Thotram etc, brings together in 'Akashagopuram' a host of talented artists like Mohanlal, the late Bharath Gopi, Geethu Mohandas, Sreenivasan, Manoj K. Jayan and Shwetha Menon.

Akashagopuram has as the central character an architect named Albert Samson, who has struggled much on his way up. As a young man he began working with Abraham Thomas, a renowned architect who liked him very much. But in due course Samson became independent and even ruined Abraham Thomas, who was thereby reduced to being Samson's assistant.

Samson climbed the ladder of success by making villas for the rich and becoming rich in the process. He also married Alice, the daughter of an English duke. But later, when Alice lost her parents as well as her children and began to understand that for her husband she was merely a stepping stone on the path to success and that he was so intoxicated by success that he didn't care about relationships at all, she distanced herself from him.

Abraham Thomas had his son Alex too working with Samson, and always wanted him to get prominence in the firm, especially because he had immense talent. But Samson would never let him grow independent.

In the meantime Samson started discovering that what he had been doing was useless since the people for whom he built the villas were not living there happily. He was determined to do something that would bring happiness to him at least. And then comes young Hilda, who makes Samson attempt to build something great, for her as well as for him. This is from where the story of 'Akashagopuram' takes off.

Mohanlal is Albert Samson while Bharath Gopi becomes Abraham Thomas. Debutante Nithya has been cast as Hilda. Manoj K. Jayan as Alex, Shwetha Menon as Alice, Sreenivasan, Geethu Mohandas etc form the rest of the cast. The film has been completed at a big budget, and is promoted not as an 'arty' movie, but as one that would appeal to everyone. Since it speaks of passion, envy and the complexities of relationships, it should, in the opinion of the makers, appeal to everyone. So, let's wait till August 22 for the movie to hit screens.