If I thought I wouldnt be able to withstand the trauma of watching #Aadujeevitham / #Goat Life, a real-life survival drama starring Prithviraj, I was mistaken.
As we watched it in Novo Cinemas Sharjah - just the three of us in that entire hall which is not unusual in this predominantly Arab residential locality - I sat there dry-eyed and stone-hearted. Rather with the same sense of stoicism that kept Najeeb going for 3 years in that desert in inhuman conditions.
The cinematography is amazing, and I hope there is an Oscar either for the director, actor, music composer or film. The beauty of the desert dunes despite its treacherous nature cant be ignored.
And that musical score Periyone _ I can't stop humming it in my heart (since I can't get the tune right to sing it aloud).
To me, the most emotional moments were in the beginning - as the newly arrived expats marvel at the tunnel in Riyadh and feeling excited about more such sights - and in the end when a deported Najeeb boards his flight - he doesnt have scent/perfumes to gift his family but only his life ahead.
To get back one's life and to go home to tell that tale - and how! a novel and now a movie - seems like a miracle when one knows that his predecessor died of old age - and how many years he must have suffered before the next victim arrived. And we feel for the successor waiting to be trapped into slavery.
My take away from this: I wish in place of the malicious propaganda film called Kerala Story (made by a non-Malayali director with non-malayali actors who behave or talk least like Malloos do and is more a North Indian's perception of what malloos are like), the central apparatus airs this everywhere so that gullible Indians don't head for the Arabian desert and end up herding camels and goats. I came across many such news reports - recent ones involving a chap from TN and another from UP - and I hope gov can prevent it or help trapped ones escape their ordeal. The jail parade where sponsors ensnare them back into their dens makes you wonder why our embassy is so toothless.
There is a curiosity to see that desert and goatland that Najeeb suffered. The real Najeeb (Shukoor from Alleppey district) doesnt ever want to go there again, so we are unlikely to discover it.
More power to Malayalam cinema which has come up with 2 other roaring hits early this year - Premalu and Manjummel Boys.
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