AaDujeevitham - The Goat Life - Listen to the Heart "Bleat"

AaDujeevitham - The Goat Life

Biography / Drama

Malayalam / 172 mins
Netflix 

Survivor Drama/Thrillers are a very rare breed of movies. 

• Almost all such movies involve the lead actor(s) to physically transform themselves for a lengthy period of time, which requires a very extreme level of  commitment from an actor/crew.
• The film maker wants to immerse the audience in the extremes the characters face, which can be a challenge in making a commercially viable product, because one does not watch such movies to be entertained!

The film makers and the lead actor  Prithviraj certainly did their bit to pique the curiosity of the audiences and media - talking about how this project had been 16 years in the making. The news of the 50 strong crew along with the lead being stuck for 3 months in  Jordan, when COVID happened is also quite famous. 

The movie is based on a book which recalls the story of  Najeeb Muhammed, a man from Kerala, who spent his life savings to make it  to Saudi Arabia to earn a future for his young family. All the perfunctory buzz aside, does the movie do justice to the source material and if it succeeds as the ambitious survivor drama it wants to be,

Aadujeevitham starts with Najeeb (Prithviraj) and Hakim (Gokul) arriving in a Gulf nation. The men are then picked by a Kafeel (a sponsor, not theirs as you would expect), who takes the hapless men deep into the desert - eventually splitting them up between two of his associates.

After a cold night in the desert (which gives the viewer some time for a back story) Najeeb wakes up to the reality that he has been "wrongly" brought to be a goat herder in the middle of a desert, miles away from civilisation. Repeatedly pleading with his masters to no avail, Najeeb's only interaction is with a ragged old Hindi-speaking sheep herder. This makes him realize the hopelessness of his situation.

An attempt at an escape results in broken ankles and a beating. The heat, dust , sand and time eventually erodes every single shred of hope that he harbours. Najeeb reconciles  to his fate, learning the work (milking the goats, herding the livestock (goats and camels) - trodding into the desert in the heat and dust, until one rainy evening in the desert, he ends up miraculously meeting Hakim . 

All of a sudden, there is hope and resolve - when Hakim tells him of an ally in his camp (Khadiri) who apparently knows the desert and can help them escape to freedom. Najeeb, Hakim and Khadiri's tortuous journey through the desert - stretches them thin on  resolve, strength, character, sanity and we know the rest.

The movie has been shot in the Sahara Desert, Wadi Rum in Jordan. The golden hues and the darkness of the night are exquisitely shot by Cinematographers K U Mohanan and KS Sunil , widely contrasting with the back story sequences which is rain, water and green in Kerala. The are some truly world class shots  - one such starts with the darkness of the sky, eventually focusing on  Najeeb's eyes when he sips water surrounded by Goats, in the dark of the night. - STUNNING

The original score is by A.R.Rahman - the score in the first half is mostly soft and fills the silences, but the second half, when the "journey" begins - there are some really stunning pieces of orchestration. In a 2 min sequence involving a mirage - you see the genius of a composition which swings  from hope and exhilaration to despair and depression - bravo! The hymn "Periyone" is the heartbeat of the film and features several times and versions. The love song (which is also stunningly shot) is also a beautiful melody.

The film however is Prithviraj all the way! I bow to his absolute dedication and commitment to the performance. His physical transformation is absolutely insane.  He shines in many sequences - the first time he sees his face in a mirror - realising how long it has actually been is heartbreaking. 

The total breakdown of a handsome, yet shy man to an absolutely ragged and rabid "barely human vermin" is staggering. The much talked about sequence, where he takes a bath is stunning! It is truly a once in a lifetime performance!

About the movie overall -  frankly it is a very "template" survivor movie. With the source material, a stunningly committed lead performance, technically superior, a solid background score and yet  it comfortably falls short of the masterpiece it could have been. 

For all the Goats that we see in the film,  we barely get to experience Najeeb's bonding with them. There is but one sequence, when the masters celebrate a night and throw a special meal to Najeeb who is in the sheep pen, a leg of mutton! - Najeeb is holding it close and he sees the sheep and he sees the best meal in years,  but the scene cuts abruptly - and could have been such a wonderful sequence. 

For all the 2 hour 50 min length, an additional 10/15 mins of Najeeb's slow transition/mental breakdown, maybe he has visions, his loss of faith could have been depicted. Not meaning to compare, but movies  like "Cast Away", "127 hours" did this well.  

It probably has the same issues that plagued a Dhanush survival drama from 10 years back Maryan , which had the same things going for it ( another stunning score by A.R.Rahman), but did not take us deep enough. 

Nevertheless, this is a movie that should still be watched. We should stand and applaud Prithviraj for bringing to life the poignant story of the real Najeeb and throwing light on maybe countless more dreams of a good life, which were ground down in the sandy dunes. 

Ps:- While he has a pretty distinguished and storied career - One of a lesser known performances  of Prithivaj in actually in a Hindi movie! IMHO. As a policeman in a corrupt police family in Aurangzeb , along with an daring evil turn by Rishi Kapoor, watch it!