The Goat Life

The Goat Life (2024)

ആടുജീവിതം

Every Breath Is A Battle

Indian migrant worker Najeeb Muhammad goes to Saudi Arabia to earn money. However, in a twist of fate, he finds himself living a slave-like existence, herding goats in the middle of the desert.

Date of release
2024-03-28
TMDB
7.4 / 10 (75)
Runtime
2h 53m
Genres
Drama, Adventure
Director
Blessy

Casting

Interesting facts

The Goat Life is a 2024 Malayalam-language survival drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Blessy. The film is an international co-production involving companies in India and the United States. It is an adaptation of the 2008 Malayalam best-selling novel Aadujeevitham, written by Benyamin, which is loosely based on the story of Najeeb Muhammad, a Malayali immigrant worker in Saudi Arabia. The film was initially banned in GCC countries except for the UAE. Subsequently, the ban was lifted in all the countries except in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The novel was also previously banned in the same countries. The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran alongside Jimmy Jean-Louis and K. R.

Production

In 2010, it was reported that Blessy had embarked upon the adaptation of Benyamin's 2008 Malayalam novel Aadujeevitham for a feature film. In April 2010, he told The Hindu that he was working on the screenplay and the film would be made on a wider canvas. He also confirmed that Prithviraj Sukumaran had been cast in the lead role.

Reportedly, filming was set to begin in August 2010 at the deserts of Dubai and Rajasthan, but that did not happen. In 2012, Benyamin said that the film was still on discussion phase and had been postponed for the time being since its production cost was found to be not viable for a Malayalam film. Blessy had been discussing the film with Prithviraj since 2008.

Parallel to the new announcement, also in November 2015, Blessy told to The Hindu that he was occupied with the research work of another film, which would be disclosed later, which would go on before The Goat Life. In May 2016, Blessy confirmed that he was busy with the pre-production work of the Hindi remake of his Malayalam film Thanmathra (2005) and The Goat Life would happen only after that.

On the challenges on adapting the novel, Blessy said, in the novel, Najeeb recollects his experience through soliloquy, which is easily conveyed through literary work, but it is difficult to depict on screen. The film's narrative is entirely different from the book.

Suriya was initially considered and cast for the role of Najeeb and Blessy discussed with him, but he opted out due to busy schedules and prior commitments.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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