Actor KR Gokul with Aadujeevitham director Blessy. Gokul donned the role of Hakeem in the movie. (Image: instagram.com/kr_gokul)When Najeeb’s story communicates hope and resilience in Aadujeevitham, Hakeem’s story breaks our hearts. Najeeb and Hakeem landed in the Gulf with one aim: a better job and money. They both got jobs as helpers in a company, and they hope they will build their lives together in an alien land. Hakeem is much younger than Najeeb, and this is his first time away from home.
(Spoiler alert) Hakeem is childlike when viewers first see him with Najeeb at the airport; he is like a boy who is going to stay at the hostel for the first time. Hakeem is sick and worried because he has not called his mother since they landed in Riyadh. When they went along with an Arab man, whom they mistakenly identified as their sponsor, they did not think their fate was going to take an untoward path. Hakeem, all excited and energised, looks outside the big buildings while Arab takes them on the vehicle; he thinks about his future prospects and big life. But, when he came to know they are trapped and are placing them separately in remote cattle farms, not the job or the place they are expected to be in, his first reaction was shock. He was suddenly numbed to the situation, and when Najeeb told them to converse with the Arab people in whatever language to avert this happening, he started speaking. Even then, the attempts failed. He cried loudly when Najeem was taken away from him.
Their meeting then happens much later. Both Najeeb and Hakeem have changed and are difficult to recognise. During their brief teary-eyed reunion, Hakeem says that his last wish was to see him one more time before death. Like a kid, he hugs Najeeb and cries, and Najeeb, equally broken, calls him “mone” (son) and pacifies him. By meeting each other accidentally, both find a flicker of hope in their lives. He sings beautifully, Periyone Rahmane, as a prayer while sitting alongside Ibrahim Qadri, whom Hakeem introduces to Najeeb as his African man who knows all the routes in the desert land and will assist them in their escape.
It was Hakeem who initiated steps for their escape. When Najeeb, who was winded by the tortuous ordeal, expressed skepticism at their escape from this desert land, Hakeem exhibited strength and slightly chided him for his disbelief. He became the mature elder and told Najeeb that it was better to escape and die in between than live the rest of their lives in this subhuman existence. During the initial part of their escape journey, he acts as a guide for Najeeb.
Then slowly, Hakeem’s steps began to falter due to fatigue and thirst. They failed to locate any small water spots to quench their thirst. He is seen running madly towards a mirage, showing himself as a water body. When he ran and failed to locate the water except for a dead camel skeleton, Hakeem got shocked. It was his first encounter with death, and it hits hard that, like the camel, their death is also near through exhaustion.
As his health began to deteriorate, so did his mind. He started having episodes due to the never-ending, harrowing journey. In one such episode, Hakeem angrily grabs and holds the throat of Qadri as if he failed or cheated them by promising escape. Hakeem, who gave strength to Najeeb at first, is not the same now. Due to his weak health, Hakeem fell on the sand, and Qadri started carrying him. His health goes downturn, beginning to lose consciousness.
Hakeem sees a vision of buildings near the mirage he encountered, and he runs madly, neglecting all the health difficulties. But when he realises that it was also a dream, he falls on the sand and starts to devour sand as if in a trance. Soon, he spits sand along with blood and begins to show his final struggles for life. He dies; as he said, it is better to die in the middle than remain in hellish existence. Najeeb and Qadri became helpless spectators. Then, a desert sand storm unleashes all its strength and covers Hakeem’s body as nature’s final farewell.
In the movie, Hakeem’s role is played by KR Gokul.
[According to Suhail Abdul Hakeem Wafi, who translated Aadujeevitham to Arabic, in the real-life story, Hakeem did not die. The translator said Shukkoor (now famous as Najeeb) himself has told him this detail.]