The Goat Life (2024)

The-Goat-Life-(2024)
The Goat Life (2024)

The Goat Life

It is a cold night in the desert. We see few figures in the dark, huddled. It looks to be a herd of goats. We pull back and see the Milky Way galaxy. As the image moves we realize it’s the reflection of the sky on water. As the water makes ripples we see a human face emerge, looking at us in a fixed stoned gaze, like one of the goats.

Right from the first frame, Blessy’s gaze is real but not dramatic. While he is painting the first frame of the film with an ‘from stars to gutter’ analogy or as they say in Urdu Arsh se Farsh Par, he is very economic in his making.

I saw Malayalam film Aadujeevitham which was supposed to have English subtitles but because of some issue there were no subtitles. As soon as the film started initial moments of shock at this goofed up made me go back many years when we used curate films and documentaries from foreign filmmakers for Bangalore Water Film Festival where one director sent us his films and none of them had subtitles so when we sent his team a long rant on mail they replied with message from director Try watching without. So ‘try watching without’ I did for Aadujeevitham too and soon enough worries went away because my minor issue with not having subtitles felt laughably miniscule in front story that was unfolding in front me While it did help that I had read book ‘Goat Days’ this film is not about dialogues It’s universal yet personal theme human suffering empathy despair and ultimately hope.

Bit of a detour, if you are someone who enjoys Malayalam cinema especially its post-covid boom then let me tell you Aadujeevitham is completely different from template (of similar faces/lovable actors simple problems their village/small town conflicting fighting even beating each other but ultimately reaching some conclusion). While I understand this is a gross generalization of successful recent films from industry, I am also critical now films that rely on template to just entertain with twists in predictable story. Lately many films have left me rather disenchanted with them some which have been highly acclaimed hence always enjoy outliers like Malaikottai Vaaliban or Brahmayugam. And again Aadujeevitham is not a Malayalam film in that sense it goes much beyond both literally and figuratively. And if you disagree with me then you can always call me a ‘not in the know’ outsider.

Is this a reality, or was it a dream?

Director Blessy and his (Cinematographer Sunil K S, Editor, Sreekar Prasad, Sound, Resul Pookutty) able technical team put together powerful imagery on screen. I wouldn’t call it ‘poetry in motion’ the hackiest of film review phrases because it’s so much more than that. It’s not the best movie ever made but when frames appear on the screen, when scenes unfold, there is magic. Whether it’s transitions from arid desert landscape to fertile backwaters of Kerala or day turning into night, amber to cold blue or progressions of time without cinematic clutches such as voice over or captions; this film has its own confident language. What seems impenetrable for the first-time viewer becomes rewarding if you surrender yourself to the story being told. For myself as an outsider (to Malayalam language but with a one member of myself Malayalam cinema appreciation club for over a decade), I was unnerved by the dialogue, by interactions between Arab characters and Najeeb, I felt like I was in an alien land where I didn’t know what was going to happen and then at some point I don’t know when exactly surrendered and found myself just there worrying about all the things Najeeb would worry about, feeling his anger and denial and fury and frustration and eventual resignation to fate.

There is a lot happening in this movie but also “there are large stretches of men walking through sand dunes in despair.” Blessy uses the desert as a motif for loneliness. The loss of hope broad strokes that I loved. And how each chapter is explored by beat after beat after beat of Najeeb’s emotional arc with partners in bad luck.

I have written at length about music, specifically album by AR Rahman here. So I knew that score would be special. But what I love about Rahman’s score in this film and how it’s used is how economical it is. There are themes. Sometimes they represent a character, sometimes an emotion, sometimes to show nature’s fury or anger of God but the smartest part about the scoring here is how married to the narration it is.

Periyone is the anchor song but not in how you’d think after listening to the album it’s just so, so beautiful in the movie. Other songs like Istigfar and Badaweih are more spiritual I guess, they represent parts of the story that can’t be expressed anymore because they’ve all been said by everybody and there’s nothing left to do but let go, so the music is otherwordly and cathartic. There’s a lot of pieces in this film that people will love upon rewatching and release of the OST, but my favorite was when AR Rahman starts humming some gibberish on the tune from Hope Song! Also, another thing they did well was use the other main theme of this movie at several different places throughout it; very nicely done. Yeah, there are your Hollywood type pieces here too but like always they’re used just right: complementing those cinematic moments where we all sit back amazed at what we’re seeing onscreen. An empty bottle also plays an important role in some BGM pieces too so do strings like santoor and Arabic instruments which weren’t as prominent in album tracks.

Book Vs Film

Obviously every single thing in a book can’t make its way into a film adaptation either, and that applies for this one too. But broadly speaking while Benyamin’s pages portrayed Najeeb as someone who just does whatever comes to mind without much pride or remorse or guilt, because sometimes he thinks wrong things right then later realizes what he should have thought instead Prithviraj paints Najeeb with a certain cinematic flourish. I mean what else can you say about him? He looks kinder with every passing moment until finally it’s impossible not to root for him anymore; you side with him against everyone else around! In fact many times while reading through those pages I found myself getting mad at our protagonist for going on n’ on about how great his life was as a shepherd in the Masara under this or that Arbab, but in watching through its film adaptation I didn’t feel any of these notes being hit so hard. Another thing missing from the movie was that religious aspect to Najeeb’s character over time his faith becomes stronger and stronger until he’s willing to do anything for it! I don’t know why they didn’t show this either. But what I’m saying is just because certain beats were absent here doesn’t mean other parts weren’t given their due elsewhere within these same frames.

What we did get however is a different world, one which I found very intriguing. In Benyamin’s pages Najeeb comes across as an emotionless person who does everything out of instinct; he sleeps when tired, eats when hungry, and walks wherever his feet take him without ever thinking twice about whether or not it’s right but through Prithviraj’s eyes we see a Najeeb bursting with emotions! This man can hardly stay in one place for more than five minutes at a time before getting anxious again so he has to keep moving around like some kind of hermit crab or something; sometimes he looks like he hasn’t bathed in weeks (which maybe he hasn’t), while other times you’d swear there must be hidden tear ducts behind those dry eyes because they’re constantly leaking saltwater onto his cheeks! And honestly speaking these are just few reasons why film worked better than book for me personally.

Yes, the film is less brutal than the novel. It does not normalize torture as much and does not have goats in it either. However, there is so much more to it like a crazy sequence with vultures or the older shepherd’s ‘andar se koi bahar na jaa sake’ bits or AR Rahman.

Now, here’s what I would have liked better about the movie. I loved the first half. The way Blessy gradually paints Najeeb’s backstory, bit by bit, and of course OMANE song shot like that took my breath away! But somewhere in between these two parts, especially in the middle part something didn’t click with me. Najeeb (again, even in the book) has his everyday routine being described but also his inner voice is very important throughout this story; how he talks to animals and gives them names from film industry or his love hate relationship with them, etc., some part of which we see happening through scenes/score, etc., but I wished we could’ve stayed a little longer here because only then can we understand what he’s going through when finally planning an escape.

Third act escape itself, no qualms about this one at all. It captures that never endingness of characters being on run perfectly well. Hope keeps slipping away from them every time while God keeps testing them over and over again too till they surrender themselves back to Him without knowing if they’ll ever make it out alive or not so yes everything depicted so relentlessly in our faces honestly speaking though am fine with directors who don’t necessarily care much whether their movies entertain people or not (Scorsese does such stuff often famously underrated Silence & recent Oscar snub Killers Of The Flower Moon), where for such filmmakers portrayal plus honesty towards vision matter most as far as Aadujeevitham’s concerned even though book tells story one way round but film being so justifiedly big scale it turns every scene into lyrical episode after another.

Opinions after watching again

I watched it the first time without subtitles, but I understood most of the dialogues in essence. But this time around, watching with subtitles opened up to me some slight language based nuances. Like when Hakim’s character says ‘we’re helpers’, previously I heard ‘help us’. Or where he asks the Arab guy to stop the van so that he can make a phone call home. Many such things came under notice in this watch. Since I was watching this in a night show, I was too deep into it all. Here are few observations:

Story & Flow, Direction

It’s weird how when everyone reviews this movie they narrate the story back. It may look or sound silly but telling back the story shows you exactly how the portrayal and movie worked on you. We all react differently to different things on screen, and a ‘human story’ like Aadujeevitham makes this reaction even more personal. I had my eyes fixed on how things were happening from Najeeb landing at the airport till these small minute touches of detailing, like how two people would interact/ react towards certain others; it is all very relatable if you’ve ever felt out of place and ‘left out’. The assurances we make to ourselves that everything will be alright, those little lies we throw into thin air, constant cycles of disbelief shock pain acceptance are just so real that every other time you watch this film or hear about this story anywhere at all there is no way not to feel and relate.

I loved how organically narrative unfolds itself, it feels like dark workplace comedy sometimes; we become them somewhere down the line – fish-out-of-water feeling alienation slacking off initially then gradually starting putting effort because there is simply no other choice fear driving existence disbelief and almost conviction “this is not meant for me” etc being such human natural emotions.

All story beats in the film are very ‘in-the-moment’, they are not painted with intent to evoke particular response. If Najeeb feels pain, you see pain. If Najeeb feels elation, you see elation. I still can’t process how anyone could feel disconnected with this protagonist on a personal level, but thinking from perspective of an indifferent viewer it may be some kind of anger or annoyance towards his actions. He does not think or do things always out of logic or reason; he rebels when you want him to rebel then submits when you want him to appease there’s really no telling what will Najeeb do next? At times he will beat the goats, at times hug them, at times he will curse his fate- at times bite into the bread (khubus) with ravenous hunger and feeling of satisfaction. You never understand has he fully resigned himself to this life.

I also liked visual aesthetic a lot more this time around, like how Najeeb wore blue shirt when he arrives then in subsequent portions it turns into brown shirt (almost element of unexpressed surrender into his predicament).

I loved the direction so much more. I like how Blessy frames it so intimately, and rarely goes for a wide angle. Along with these cinematic devices, there’s a sense of claustrophobia that’s created.

This time around I also paid attention to the other things in the frame the goats, camels, rocks, broken down car, small water column and tap, sheds, fences…basically everything that makes up Najeeb’s world in the desert. In films like these which spend a lot of time in the atmospherics you start having a spatial recognition of the physical environment and it helps you relate to what is happening on screen a bit more.

Performance

Prithviraj has given everything here physically and mentally demanding act where he brings in so many things to make it work. The transformation in his face over time; gait posture, entire body language. scene where he asks water tanker guy for help, or when he takes piece of broken rear view mirror to trim beard after asking other shepherd how long its been before walking lost in sands muttering curses at his fate doubting if he wants to escape even or just reminiscing about his days in Kerala there is so much lived in ness to everything that happens. I am generally not fond of overtly dramatic performances (read Kamal Hassan), and prefer Mohanlal Mammootty school of acting more but what Prithviraj goes for here was even better than expected.

Another criticism leveled against this film was that Arab characters are written portrayed as Two Dimensional (Black & White). I don’t agree with it. You have arbab offering khubus to Najeeb and telling him to dip it in water while eating..or giving him stick when he is initially beaten hollow by violent goats or promising nikkah biryani..you have another arbab teaching Najeeb how to milk the goats..rich car guy who offers him lift characters towards end (restaurant staff, people at outpass check post) are again not Black & White as alleged.

The long sequences in silence are another great thing about this movie. The post interval portion with the hailstorm was just such a visual delight if you look at it cinematically. This film is one of those rare ones that strikes a balance between making you feel pain, suffering but still soaking in the atmospherics, the visual frames. to an extent where you can almost sense dust and heat around you.

AR Rahman’s Score

I cherished the score so much in my first viewing that this time I tried to match the pieces with the cues and the songs. Each piece, each instrument used in it has been thought about so deeply. Rahman knows this project like the back of his hand. He knows when to bring in tension, when to be loud, when to be silent, when to bring in a song it’s all so beautifully sewn together. One more interesting thing about the score is how it interlaces with Resul Pookutty’s sound. You have wind speaking through pieces, you have water of the village river gushing through santoor strings; you have a character rushing or running out of fear or anxiety and you have percussion complementing his fury.

I don’t agree with critics who say that the score does all the emoting. The scene at the railway station in the village I specifically watched that part twice was conveyed beautifully by those soft hummings and actually, they echoed my emotional response, which is why cinema exists, if you question every element standing alone from its existence point then you are just being disrespectful towards filmmaker himself and his team.

Having seen it twice now I still find many aspects in this film that deserve an applause and encore from me and I hope catch them on more watches.

Aadujeevitham- A landmark film, which will be called not just a masterpiece of Malayalam cinema but Indian and World Cinema for years to come too.

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