“Work Of Art”: Aadujeevitham Director Blessy On “Attempts To Create Social Unrest”
Blessy, director of hit movie Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, responded to the criticism in the Arab social media on the content of the movie. As Timeline reported on Friday, criticism of the film focuses primarily on the depiction of Arabs as cruel and the performance of Omani actor Dr Talib al Balushi, who plays the monstrous “Kafeel” (the sponsor) who takes the protagonist to his farm and leaves him to suffer. Blessy said the movie should be treated only as a work of art, and he was issuing the statement as he noticed that there are some attempts to create social unrest by misinterpreting the contents of the movie.
“I call upon all to abstain from any efforts to attribute anything beyond what I as the scriptwriter, director and producer of the movie ever intended to communicate,” he added.
In his statement, Blessy said the movie Goat Life is a cinematic adaptation of the best-selling Malayalam novel by Benyamin published twenty years ago and translated into many languages over the years, and it relentlessly tried to highlight the nobleness of human soul even in the heart of a harsh person. “Najeeb’s faith in God got strengthened as the days pass by and God comes to him first in the form of Ibrahim Qadri and then in the form of the noble Arab gentleman with the Rolls Royce. I tried to give this message consistently throughout the movie and never intended to hurt the sentiments of any individual, race, or country,” he added.
He also said the movie “carefully tried to portray the compassion and empathy of the Arab people through the character of the kind gentleman who (without whom Najeeb would have died on the road) rescues Najeeb taking him in his expensive and blemish free Rolls Royce, offering him water and encouraging him to sleep and taking him to a place where Najeeb could get help. The restaurant staff, the people at the detention centre and the Arbab out-pass check post are all portrayed as epitomes of kindness, compassion, and empathy.
“I am the director of the movie, and the script of the movie is written by myself and the movie is produced by my own company ‘Visual Romance’ in which I am the sole owner and shareholder; and no other individual or company has any involvement, whatsoever, in the production of the movie,” he said in the statement.
In recent days, the film Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) has gained traction on Arabic social media. Adapted from the book of the same name, the film was translated into Arabic as Ayyamul Maaiz. Both the book and the movie faced bans in some Gulf countries upon their release, though many of these restrictions have since been lifted.
As the hashtag Hayathul Maaiz trends on Arabic X, reactions are divided, however most of the tweets were discussing the portrayal of Arabs in the movie that has sparked the debate.
Critics mainly take issue with two aspects: the depiction of Arabs as harsh and the performance of Omani actor Talib al Balushi, who plays the villainous “Kafeel” (the sponsor) who subjects the protagonist to suffering on his farm. Despite this, many have praised the film’s artistic value, arguing that neither the book nor the movie paints all Arabs in a negative light.
