Language: Malayalam
Akatho Puratho is the follow-up from director Sudevan to his state award winning feature film debut- Crime No 89. The latter was produced on a meagre budget of 7 lacs while his newest film cost a still meagre 15 lacs. His films are what you call as proper award films in Malayalam and is generally targeted for festival audience only. Some of them can really test your patience but in this film Sudevan pretty much hooks your from the beginning.
It is a two hour long film comprising of four short films with the last two considerably longer. Common theme running through them is death. First short is titled fish and is basically a depiction of food chain in our society through the lifecycle of a fish captured beautifully. The next one is titled the doll and does a similar feat over the lifecycle of a doll. The last two titled 'Old Man' and 'Her' respectively are human condition stories which can test your patience. The length, on reflection, is quite warranted for the first one as it is about the painfully slow process of death of a bedridden old man who is never shown on screen. It can really make you think about your own mortality and reaffirms the cause for assisted suicide, which I fully endorse. The last segment of the film is its weakest which involves a crime of passion and the protagonist role is played by a theatre artist. All others in the film are non-professionals.
Crime No: 89 was more cinematic in the traditional sense since it involved a plot. Akatho Puratho is more of an art movie and is available on Amazon Prime Video Service. Such streaming services can really provide a platform for these kind of niche films which can never get a theatrical release here in Kerala. The likes of Munroe Island and Ozhivudivasathe Kali, both of which got a very limited theatrical release here, are available on Netflix and comes highly recommended.
Rating: 3.5/5
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