Review – The Goat Life

Starring: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Amala Paul, Jimmy Jean-Louis, KR Gokul, Talib Al Balushi and Rik Aby.
Director and Screenplay: Blessy
Original Story: Benyamin
Producers: Visual Romance
Banner: Visual Romance

It’s the end of march and we’ve already seen enough of the Malayalam cinema this year? Did we? No, not until Blessy’s THE GOAT LIFE made its Debut screening in the actual Movie Markets across the world today. Scroll down and continue the full read because the movie offered more than what you can think of.

What Is It About?

Nazeeb, an usual hard-working guy from Kerala’s Azhapuzha, dreams of going to the gulf and making a good life and numbers there. We are well aware of how wrong things can go for a gulf migrant but, are we ready for what’s in there for Nazeeb? So, experience this Goat Days’ Adaptation by yourself to know.

Performances:

Prithviraj Sukumaran delivers a career defining performance through Nazeeb. He has brought the character to life with his AWARD DESERVING ACT. His performance stands as one of the best we’ve seen on the Indian Screens, accompanied by Amala Paul, who plays his wife in this film. Kr Gokul marked his good presence in the second half along with Jimmy Jean-Louis, Rik Aby and others.

Technicalities:

Aadu Jeevitham shines with its technical finesse throughout. From A.R.Rahman’s grandeur orchestral score to the cinematography by Sunil K.S, every craftsperson gave their 200% to bring this film to life. The match cuts and transitions were brilliantly written, shot and edited. The efforts to execute some shots in that physically demanding environment deserves an applause.

This film has a lot of special and visual effects and they contributed to setting up the right mood for it. Designing sound for such films is often challenging because of the absence of proper references in many situations and Resul Pookutty along with Vijay Kumar MPSE did their best for the same.

Though it’s heard that the book has more gruesome moments and scenes, Blessy had his limits set right to cater to the screens through his screenplay. In a line, we can state that THE GOAT LIFE has set the technical standards very high, on a par with International Cinema.

Thumbs Up:

Stunning performance from Prithviraj Sukumaran.
A One of its kind experience from Blessy.

Thumbs Down:

A bit dragged and feels unfinished towards its end.

Analysis:

Thirst is often a heavenly feeling when fulfilled and we can only see how thirsty Blessy and Prithvi are to tell this heart-wrenching story of Najeeb to the world. We only know how privileged our lives are until we watch stories such as THE GOAT LIFE. The film happens in the desert of Saudi Arabia where there’s no trace of life except for our protagonist and his goat herd, owned by a gruesome Arab.

The Sand connection is amazing, as Blessy portrays Nazeeb as a sand mining worker in Kerala, and it’s the sand that feeds him and his family in Kerala and keeps him alive throughout his plan of escape in Saudi. Najeeb demands a lot of effort physically as well as mentally to play and no one except for Prithviraj can play Najeeb as honest as this.

As the name of the Production house suggests, this film is indeed a Visual Romance. The visuals are mind-boggling to a large extent. Rahman brought a lot of authenticity to this film through his rooted score, which enhances and elevates the emotion to a large extent.

The philosophical nuances make us introspect many aspects of our life throughout and that makes this film a devastating Survival Drama which haunts us for a while. On an endnote, Prithvi’s efforts to dub his character in all the remaining 4 languages deserves a special mention because his Telugu dubbing was flawless.

Bottomline: A Once in a lifetime Survival Drama.