Aadu Jeevitham (Malayalam) – literally translates as GOAT LIFE

This GOAT does not refer to the ‘Greatest Of All Times’ – it refers to one simple person – Najeeb, a Diver by profession, wanting a dignified, hardworking existence and financial security, to live peacefully with his mother, wife and unborn child.

As is the norm in Kerala, he looks to the Middle East, for redemption from his life of poverty.

His ordeal starts from the moment he steps out of the Airport, where he and his companion are kidnapped by a ruthless bedouin, living out in the desert.

You feel battered, pummeled, squeezed, stretched and all emotions in between, as Actor Prithiviraj as the character Najeeb, lives and survives with his Goats and Camel’s, becoming one with them and living the life of the damned.

The escape from the desert is very beautifully and realistically shot, making us live through sand storms and ever shifting dunes.

Simillar to Hollywood films like Cast Away ( Tom Hanks), it is a one man show and what a show Prithviraj has put up. Prithviraj Sukumaran has lived the role. What seems very contradictory, is that through the entire movie, you travel with Najeeb the character but never loose sight of PRITHVIRAJ. How is that possible, but there it is.

The climax where Najeeb realizes that his employer was not really his boss, but a hustler and a fraud, Prithiviraj’s acting is stupendous – the shame, anger, his helplessness, inability to strike back, everything was conveyed in that single cringe.

The one song, repeatedly played as the background score, by A. R. Rahman – ‘Periyonae En Rahamaanae, Periyonae Raheem …. is so haunting and powerful and yet somehow weaves hope into the hearts of the hopeless.

Great direction by Blessy, he delivered, not a great movie, but an unforgettable EXPERIENCE.