Last Updated on March 21, 2025 by themigrationnews
Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) is a 2024 Malayalam movie directed and co-produced by Blessy. This survival drama is adapted from Benyamin’s much acclaimed 2008 novel of the same name, which itself is based on a real-life human-interest story. The film is a tale of Najeeb, a young man from Kerala who migrates to Saudi Arabia to better his financial situation, only to find himself trapped in appalling circumstances.
The Prelude
The film begins in the early 1990s, with Najeeb and his friend Hakkim, both first-time migrants from the South Indian state of Kerala, going through immigration check at a Saudi airport. Unable to speak Arabic or any language other than Malayalam, they explained to the officer in broken English that they had come to work as company helpers. Najeeb, a fifth-class pass who previously worked as a sand miner in Kerala, decides to try his luck when a friend offers him a visa to Saudi for twenty thousand through a relative in the Gulf. He raises money by borrowing from lenders, mortgages his house and wife’s gold for a work visa, and leaves for Bombay to meet the agent who will send him to Saudi for an additional ten thousand rupees.
While Najib and Hakkim waited for hours at the airport for sponsor to pick them up, those who came before and after them are leaving with their sponsors. They meet a Malayali ground staff at the airport, who tries to help them but in vain as the only number they have was an office number which is non-responsive as they landed on a Friday, the weekly holiday. They forgot to collect any other phone numbers from their Bombay agent in the excitement and rush to get on the flight. The day faded into twilight, casting an ominous shadow over their initial excitement with growing unease.
Adujeevitham poignantly portrays the nuances of the initial phase of international migration – the pre-migration planning, fund raising, bag packing, bidding emotional farewell to family and friends, the nervousness of first flight, initial excitement of landing in a foreign country, time zone change adjustment, and language barriers. The film also shows how the migrants miss home the moment they are in host lands.
The Unfolding
Anxious about their predicament and unable to contact their families to inform their ‘safe’ arrival, they fell prey to a stranger who made them believe himself as their sponsor. Exploiting their ignorance and vulnerability, he seized their passports and drove them to a secluded farm in the desert interiors. Hakkim was dropped off at a different location, leaving Najeeb to face a grim turn of fate all alone. The film then vividly portrays physical and emotional struggles of Najeeb in the cattle farm, facing harsh desert weather, oppressive working conditions, and inhumane treatment.
For Najeeb, daydreaming about Kerala’s green landscapes, monsoons, and backwaters are his only respites from the blazing hot and eerily still desert surrounding him. The lingering smell of mango pickle from a nearly empty jar he brought from home, and latches onto dearly, transports him back to his home and his pregnant wife and ageing mother. While the film follows Najeeb’s journey, his family’s ordeals are understandable too.
Mistreated by his abusive employer, Najeeb was forced into cattle herding for years. Bearing unimaginable hardships and suffering, with his only human interactions limited to the sponsor and his occasional visitors, a deep sense of emptiness grew in him. After a few failed attempts to escape, he surrendered to his fate of living a ‘goat life’ in the desert farm. The film skilfully captures the emotional turmoil of Najeeb – how he gradually stopped speaking Malayalam, and reduced to just skin and bones due to inadequate food and malnutrition. The touching cinematic narrative makes audience feel his pain and suffering as their own.
The Conclusion
The fate takes a turn when he unexpectedly reunites with his long-lost friend Hakkim and plans their escape with the help of a fellow worker, fuelled by an irresistible urge to return home. Walking for days and nights mostly barefoot across the unending desert and fighting many odds and near-death situations–massive sandstorms, venomous snakes, and dehydration-induced hallucinations–he finally makes it alive to the city. Now an undocumented migrant, Najeeb, with the help of the Malayali community members and the authorities, received out-pass to finally return home.
Though Aadujeevitham focuses on the story of an individual Malayali/Indian migrant, it is a powerful reminder of the broader costs of migration that many labourers face in foreign lands. The critical reception of the film underlines the emotional connect the storyline could make with its viewers. The film is currently available on Netflix.
(Mr. Jyothish Babu teaches Humanities and Political Science at SVGV Higher Secondary School, Kidangannoor, Pathanamthitta, Kerala).