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