Debutants Ajith Pillai and Vipin Radhakrishnan borrows from the current trend of narrative story telling, but creates a beautiful eclectic mix of movie making styles that melds together phenomenal cinematography, voice over dubbing and rustic music to bring us one of the best movies of 2014.
Lack of familiarity of the current generation to the Lakshadweep, Andamans and their culture and how it influences and is influenced by the Malayali culture is the byline of the movie. Sunny Wayne as A(i)kbar Ali is perfect for the role that he plays with merry. Asif Ali gives a strong performance as the central character, Alex, the vagabond, fugitive who discovers life through the mayhem as narrated. Swathi Reddy as Isa is less than competent in her attempt to portray the emotions just through merely the face wearing the costumes of the orthodox religious sect she is representing. Very few female actors could have pulled such a role off with ease and Swathi is not one of them.
A scion of a rich ultra orthodox Syrian Christian family in central Kerala, Alex becomes the sole inheritor of a large bounty passed along through generations. Lack of familial setup, undue importance to machismo and libido, corrupted social support structure and non existent education make Alex go astray, literally spiraling down the drain of life. He eventually ends up in a prison which he couldn't stand. With the help of Raviettan (P Balachandran), and Ali, Alex escapes the prison. The prison warden happens to be a much older nephew of Alex, portrayed by Joju George manipulates Alex to come back to the prison in lieu of a concocted amnesty he is allegedly working on. However, since they wanted both the fugitives, Alex follows Ali and Ali's complicated life to Minicoy. As the layers of the onion are peeled, we get a peek into the life of Akbar Ali, his heartthrob Isa, Isa's husband Hashim, friend Sulaiman and a whole lot of affable characters from that part of the world.
The postamble of the story is mostly happy and predictable. Kudos to these movie makers to script such a story and direct it to near perfection.