Movie review: 'Aadujeevitham' by Prithviraj is gritty and intense

Gulf News

Transcript

00:00This is one of the most toughest movies that I've had to watch in a cinema,

00:03and I'm telling you, I was reaching for the tissues for quite some time.

00:09Good afternoon, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News.

00:12I'm here with my review of Aadi Jeevidham.

00:15It's called The Goat Life in English, and it's a Malayalam language feature.

00:19It stars Prithviraj Sukumaran in a crucial role.

00:22This is one of the most toughest movies that I've had to watch in a cinema,

00:26and I'm telling you, I was reaching for the tissues for quite some time.

00:29The movie is based on a true-life incident, making it all the more touching.

00:33In fact, Prithviraj has undergone a massive transformation for this role.

00:38He plays Najeeb, a young man from Kerala who comes to the Middle East

00:42in search of work as a helper in a cleaning company.

00:46Now when he reaches the airport along with his friend,

00:49he realises Hakim, his friend is Hakim, played brilliantly by Gokul.

00:55He realises that he does not know what the sponsor looks like,

00:58what his future potential employer looks like.

01:02He gets abducted by a man who claims to be his employer,

01:06and he becomes a reluctant goat herd.

01:09Then the movie morphs into a survival thriller,

01:12where the man tries to escape this brutal life of his that he's stuck with.

01:17He's robbed of his identity, he's robbed of his past,

01:20and there are scenes which are just so visceral and touching.

01:24This is directed by Blessy, and he started this project in 2008.

01:28There is one scene in the movie where there is Prithviraj looking very haggard

01:34and drinking water from a pond along with the goats.

01:39You cannot make out the difference between the animal and the human.

01:42It shows how life can be the biggest leveller,

01:46how toxic and abusive work environment can remove the humanity.

01:52Like, you know, this is one of the movies that kind of highlights

01:56how undocumented workers often go underground

01:59and the kind of brutality they face in their line of work.

02:03This man is a goat herd, he's not given a place to sleep,

02:06he's treated shabbily, unspeakable cruelties doled out to him by his employers.

02:11He does not know the language, he's stuck in a desert with nowhere to go.

02:15Fortunately, he somehow manages to meet Hakim,

02:18who's also in a similar farm, in a similar situation,

02:21where he's thrashed every day, robbed of food.

02:24This whole movie is based on a true-life incident,

02:27and that's what makes it very, very troubling as well to watch.

02:31It's not an easy watch to watch Prithviraj break down,

02:36be it his physicality, where he looks like he's been in the desert,

02:40the desert has robbed him of dignity perhaps,

02:43and he's forgotten what it is to be even a human.

02:47He's making all these gluttons sounds, all those come from a very deep place.

02:51Full marks has to go to Prithviraj for surrendering so blindly to a role.

02:56In fact, there's not been many actors who actually go the whole length.

03:00We have, of course, we had Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant perhaps,

03:06who went all out when it came to tackling the bear in the revenge thriller,

03:10but here we have Prithviraj doing the same.

03:13He lost a lot of weight, the physical transformation,

03:17and to see his decay as a human being and as a worker,

03:21I dare you not to cry in these movies.

03:23In fact, when I walked out of the cinema halls,

03:25I remember feeling very, very underwhelmed, overwhelmed by the movie,

03:29but underwhelmed because of the unspeakable cruelty that lies with undocumented workers.

03:34This movie is one that perhaps shows the triumph of human spirit and determination,

03:39but the end of the day, you can still see the underlying grief

03:42that people are willing to go to any lengths, go to any country,

03:46a foreign country to perhaps extract a better living for more money.

03:50I mean, it just shows the plight of many migrant laborers

03:54in many parts of the globe, including the Middle East.

03:56So it's a very sad, it's a portrait, it's a very searing portrait of human suffering.

04:01In fact, director Blessy has done a brilliant job

04:04of putting together this very compelling and visually stunning tale.

04:09What I loved about the movie is also how beautifully it has been all put together.

04:13It's visually stunning, just how the beauty of the desert has been showcased.

04:18You can also see how brutal the desert can get.

04:21You can see how unforgiving nature is and how man has to somehow survive it.

04:28All those scenes have been beautifully shown.

04:30In fact, the scenes in which he breaks down when he has zero hope

04:35and the scenes in which Gokul played by Hakeem,

04:37a small diminutive man who's really younger than Prithviraj's character,

04:41they both look out for each other.

04:44They both come to the Middle East in search of better work

04:46and then they realize that they have been duped

04:49and then they have been pushed into something called modern slavery.

04:55There's no freedom for them.

04:58This movie is one where it lasts around three hours.

05:02It's very dark. It's very searing.

05:04So it takes a lot of guts from the viewer as well to watch it

05:07because there have been many times during the movie where I had to look away

05:12because I was just touched by what's happening on the screen.

05:17And that's not to say that that's not the fault of the filmmaker.

05:21It's more about how much it touches us as well.

05:23But be warned, this movie moves at a very slow pace.

05:27There are times when you feel it could have been edited a lot shorter.

05:30The scenes in which Prithviraj's backstory of his pregnant wife Amla,

05:35his mother, etc.

05:37Those are a bit of bright spots in an otherwise very bleak movie.

05:42This is a bleak movie.

05:44It's not like a festive movie.

05:45It's a movie where you have to go in your own head.

05:48You have to make up your mind that I'm going to go into the movie.

05:52I am going to feel sad.

05:53I am going to be moved by the story.

05:55And it's also going to make me feel, it might trigger me.

05:58It might make me feel depressed about the human suffering.

06:01It might make me wonder about the thousands of faceless undocumented workers

06:06that go underground and you don't know what happens to them, etc.

06:09If you're interested in, let's say, literature, history, economics,

06:12then this movie is for you because it's also a masterclass in great acting.

06:16It's also a masterclass in great visual storytelling.

06:20When it comes to just the pure spectacle of it,

06:22I know it's a very bleak movie.

06:24It's about a man trying to escape his toxic employers,

06:28his physically, they are violent.

06:32He's being watched like a dog.

06:33In fact, the sheeps and the goats have a better life,

06:36the camels have a better life than the ones who look after them.

06:39They're just like faceless numbers to them.

06:42It all makes you very sad.

06:43But I think just for Prithviraj, who shines in this movie,

06:47Gokul and also the Jean Paul as well,

06:50who's done such a remarkable job as this Nigerian person who helps them out,

06:55who knows the roots and tries to help them escape the desert

06:59and find a road so that they can escape.

07:02This is a movie that is powered by some great acting and some great visuals.

07:06It was shot majorly in Jordan as well.

07:09And it's a labor of love for both Glassy and Prithviraj Sugumaran.

07:14And I have to say you can see the effort

07:16because this movie is an example of artists who come together for a movie

07:21and surrender to that cause for nearly a decade or more.

07:26Watch this for some stunning performances.

07:28But let me warn you, it's not an easy watch.

07:30It's a disturbing, visceral and a very, very bleak watch.

07:35I have gone with 3.5 out of 5.

07:38For my full review, go to gulfnews.com.

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