The protagonist of the film Apabad, Suyog (Raj Ballav Koirala) aspires to be a writer and he lives in his own poetic world. He is a fresh graduate and he carries his philosophy that he doesn’t have ‘plans’, only ‘dreams’.

Suyog sees the world with his poetic lens which is full brimful with dreams. He shares his poetic writings with his lady love Sunanda (Nisha Adhikari). But his life is perplexed regarding his father’s (Rabi Giri) pestering nature to get a good job and settle down.

Suyog is ditched in the mire of his dreams and his family’s expectation from him. So, he takes suicide as an easy means to get rid of problems. With a quirk of fate, he lands up in an unknown island and leads a new life on his own. After getting stranded in a deserted island, he is on a journey of self-discovery.

Here, he learns the practical values of life. He catches fish, starts tilling a barren land and often wanders to get up-close with nature. But, a sense of desperation and desolation haunts him and later he comes back to his earlier life.

If watched meticulously, Suyog’s hairy looks and the character’s activities somewhere are similar to the protagonists of some international flicks—Into the Wild, Cast Away and Robinson Crusoe. At the end the desperate, Suyog realizes Christopher McCandless of Into the Wild quote ‘Happiness only real when shared.’

Suyog’s internal conflict can be seen in his actions. There are few things to be cheered such as he tries to smoke an unlighted cigarette, shows his feeling of defeat against death and few others. The non-linear narrative style is also captivating.

But the things in the plot that keeps nagging is, Suyog who has done nothing such substantial in life and only utters ideologies and runs after his aspiring dream. He says he doesn’t like the smell of money and follows his inner voice. But, his path is full of disorder. He lacks in giving proper reasons of his desperation and aloofness.

Though Apawad has brought about some change in the mainstream movie line, the team seems to be too naïve to deal with such a vague subject related to the conflict of minds in our society. The thing to cheer up in the film is its cinematography and background score, which is captivating.

Raj Ballav can be seen in two psychologies. He has tried his best, but not up to the mark. Sporting full beard and running into wilderness is not enough. The character has to cope up with the problems; running away from it is not the solution.

Two cheers out of five!