Aadujeevitham Review: Prithviraj’s World Beating Performance In Blessy’s Master Class

Spell bound. Thousand reviews wouldn’t be able to contain what Blessy has created with Prithviraj Sukumaran in the survival drama of best selling Malayalam work Aadujeevitham by Benyamin. It has the elements of unmatchable human urge for survival, world beating acting performance by an actor who took the risk to make a movie that was in the making for a decade, the magnificent and alluring cinematography by Sunil KS that left no stones unturned in catching the beauty and wilderness of desert, the atmospheric and transcendent original score by ethereal AR Rahman and above all, a master class in craft from the man who created magic earlier with classics like Kazhcha and Thanmatra.

In a movie, in which desert remains the canvas Blessy uses to draw the real life story of Shukkoor (an Arattupuzha native from Kerala’s Alappuzha, now famous as Najeeb Muhammad), Prithviraj is everything. This is his magnum opus performance. The man who carved his niche with poignant performances like Jana Gana Mana, Ennu Ninte Moideen, Classmates and Kaaviya Thalaivan among others, makes his portrayal of Najeeb as his benchmark.

Apart from Prithviraj, there are couple of more notable performances in the movie. One is Dr Talib Al Balushi’s Khafeel, the Bedouin sponsor of Najeeb. The convincing acting by the Omani actor reeks of ruthlessness of everything against basic human kindness.

Jimmy Jean-Louis, Haiti-born actor-producer, comes as a big surprise both in the story and movie alike. With his subtle performance makes the second half of the movie, which is mostly about Najeeb’s escape from the illegal-bonded labour somewhere inside the deep desert, he leads the pack (him, Hakim- another Keralite who travelled the desert only to lose his life as they escape, and Najeeb) to life but doesn’t survive.

After Najeeb, one character that causes much agony to the viewer is Hakeem, who was perfectly presented by young KR Gokul.

The only female actress-presence as a major character in the movie, Amala Paul’s Sainu as Najeeb’s wife, reduced in some shots and a song sequence, obviously as movie is mostly centred on the lead character’s trajectories of a normal village boy in Kerala to a survivor of cruelties of highest order.

If you have watched the VFX-filled Dune series and liked it, Aadujeevitham’s visual treatment of dryness and silence of desert will baffle you. Sunil KS’ wizardry in presenting this enchanting treatment is brilliantly espoused in all the wide, close-up, aerial and low angle shots.

Back to director Blessy: The director’s emergence to create one of the best movie of the recent times with international standard lies in the history of his craftsmanship. Blessy has done everything except comedy in his two decades long career which kicked off with Kazhcha that epitomised the human to human connection and the agony when a dearest is taken away by the rules and laws of the land. He manoeuvred through his classic style of movie making in unforgettable ways of storytelling in his movies which were dug deep in to the complexities of relationships. Father-son, lovers, ex-lovers, father-daughters, husband-wife, memory, traumas, greed, taboos and status etc were his central themes in his career (in which he remained silent for almost a decade in preparation and struggles for making Aadujeevitham possible, except for a documentary released in 2018).

He is a writer-director, a comfortable combo that allows the creative mind to go free in the execution. This advantageous position helped him in making the Aadujeevitham as effective as it written by Benyamin.

Detailing of the character is his main characteristics, and Benyamin has already done that duty for him. Be it the way he shaped the projectionist Madhavan or slowly opened up Rameshan of Thanmathra, the bright and smart government servant who ultimately falls for a life threatening illness or tactically unleashed the greed and carelessness of Manichan in Palunku, Blessy is a master in letting the audience to make an inseparable connection. In Aadujeevitham, that came really easy for Blessy as Najeeb never leaves the screen and minds of the audience.

Najeeb is going to remain with the audience for long as Madhavan, Rameshan, Manichan, Mathews (of Pranayam) and Sivankutty (of Bhramaram) stay with the audience with the powerful impact they make.

About an argument is being discussed on the story: the Islamophobic aftermath of a story in which a couple of mindless Bedouin sponsors enslave labourers and destroy their lives in a remote desert in Saudi Arabia. Although the central theme of the book and the movie is led by this cruelty, migration to West Asia, especially from Kerala, the Southern geographical mass of Indian subcontinent, has substantially contributed to the economic and social upliftment of a large amount of populace. In my view, albeit the general inhuman treatment meted out to labourers across the world, if an aberration from the actual state of affairs is considered as the normal, that would be a problem of the conceiver of the idea.

Aadujeevitham is a world class movie. A must watch for everyone who loves to watch a survival-adventurous drama. But there is a catch: the ride is unimaginably bitter and depressing, as real life Najeeb lived and reel-life Prithviraj screen-lived.