‘We stayed true to the book and Najeeb’s struggles’

CHENNAI: Prithviraj’s energy level is sky-high ahead of Aadujeevitham’s release on March 28, worldwide. He just landed in Kochi from the US via Dubai and is here talking to us before leaving for the audio launch. The film is based on the novel of the same name, written by Benyamin, which revolves around true incidents in which Prithviraj plays Najeeb, an migrant labourer from Kerala, who is forced into herding goats in Saudi Arabia.

The trailer that was released on Saturday shows that the film will be nothing short of a spectacle upon hitting the screens. Prithviraj says the film is beyond that and adds, “The word spectacle or all that you describe after watching the trailer is secondary. Aadujeevitham has recorded true life of a man named Najeeb. We need to stay true to the novel and what Najeeb went through. The magnanimity of the story lies the sufferings and the emotions behind it. Everything else is just a backdrop of the emotional landscape this character travels. The spectacle not only lies in the making but in the conviction with which we have made this film.”

National award-winning filmmaker Blessy first pitched the story to Prithviraj in 2008. Since the dynamics of Malayalam, Indian and global cinema have drastically evolved. Prithviraj sees the positive side of the evolution of global cinema and says, “The story hasn’t changed much but we had to wait for 10 years­­– from 2008 to 2018 for Malayalam cinema to evolve as we had to pull this off in such a huge scale. It has helped us achieve the business propositions we wanted to. It would have been impossible to do this 15 years ago.”

The film was physically daunting for Prithviraj as the role demanded more than 100 per cent from him. But the crew was stuck in Jordan while the first wave of COVID-19 began and the team was stuck in Jordan’s Wadi Rum as air travel curfew was announced. “It did not impact us much as we were isolated in Wadi Rum. This also brought the team together and we were closely-knit, which was good in a way,” he adds.

In 1990s and early 2000s, Tamil cinema and its audience took pride in casting top tier Malayalam actors like Mammootty, Mohanlal and Prithviraj in lead roles. Lately, the actors’ focus have strongly shifted in making content oriented films in Malayalam and have been the ambassadors of taking the industry to the global stage. “Good writers, actors and producers have started working together in churning out good content. Whenever I hear that Malayalam industry is the best from the rest, I feel proud. Yes, we have struck a fine balance. But we also make mistakes and not all films have ended up being Manjummel Boys or a Premalu. But consistency is better than before. It is a good time to be an actor and a producer here, “ he says with a smile.

Prithviraj is joining hands with Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman for the third time after Raavanan and Kaaviya Thalaivan. The actor says that music forms an important aspect of Aadujeevitham which has only 20 per cent of dialogues through its runtime. “Aadujeevitham is not a verbiage. It is about one person’s internal journey and a lot that is on papers has to come through music. It is one of the characters in the movie. In fact, when I was returning from the US last night, I met Rahman sir on the flight from Dubai to Kochi. He told me how he wants to go back to his studio and do more. I feel proud that Rahman sir is saying this. His work is amazing and you will get to see that on March 28,” he signs off.