Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi - A traveller's delight

Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi (English: Blue Skies, Green Waters, Red Earth) is a brilliant attempt by Samir Thair to make a road trip movie for the first time in Malayalam cinema. Supported by Hashir Mohammad's brilliant script and excellent visuals by Gireesh Gangadharan the movie has turned out as a beautiful visual treat.Dulkar Salman has done a superb job as Kasi-the lead actor. The story is about Kasi - a youngster who completed his engineering and Suni - Kasi's intimate friend and their journey from Kerala to North Eastern India on bikes. Their warm friendship and comradarie is beautifully captured in the film. Through this journey with out any specific aim, Kasi wants to get over his past relationship.( I too had a similar experience some time back traveling with a friend on a bike who was in the same state as Kasi :-) )

On their way, they see and feel the real India through the people they meet during the journey.Inspired by the people he had met during the journey, he decided to search for his lover Assi- a young woman from Nagaland - who came to Kerala to study engineering in the same college where Kasi and Suni studied. They were attacked by thieves, got into a group of hippies , captured by Naxals, witnessed the riots in Assam, enjoyed the song of sadhus and consumed bhang with them, experienced the anger of Naga's and learn more about themselves and India. Along with the journey, the film progresses though the college life of Kasi and Assi and their struggle to get the approval from Kasi's orthodox family who first accepted their love but succumbed to pressures of the orthodox society they were part of. Kasi's college life is almost the same story of many youngsters in Kerala. The idealistic left activism they cherish as students and the confusion they face later in the real life when they have to work as part of the same system they opposed once. The confusion of Kasi about his identity is actually the same confusion many experience when they are constantly reminded about their identity by the society even though they had came out of their traditional beliefs and customs. The naxal village portrayed in the films throws some light on the threats of crony capitalism on the life of villagers in India and their struggle to fight against it to protect their homeland. Finally after all his struggles Kasi got back his sweet heart from Nagaland and starts his return journey and the film ends. I felt that the climax would have been more powerful than the ordinary climax that was shown in the movie.

The movie is a delight to watch for a travel enthusiast who can identify with the joy of seeing new places and cherish the experience of a long journey. The film encourages every traveler to explore the new horizons and seek the thrill and excitement that every journey offers. Exploring India is a great learning experience and makes you a much better person. The visuals are beautiful and as a unique attempt to make road trip as a theme the effort is commendable.


The film has it's own weaknesses too. I felt that some scenes in the second half were dragging. The climax was just ordinary nothing special. There was more scope for covering the diversity and the variety that India offers, but may be two and half hours may not be a sufficient.

I heard from my friend that Hashir Mohammad- the script writer of the movie, actually traveled to North East immediately after finishing his studies on a bike and got inspired to make this movie :-).