Aadujeevitham: Intimate scene between Najeeb and goat in Prithviraj-starrer deleted on censor board's instruction

Prithviraj in Aadujeevitham

After several obstacles and 16 years later, Blessy and Prithviraj Sukumaran's film 'Aadujeevitham' has hit the theatres. The film has been receiving rave reviews from the audience and members of the film industry as well.

The highly-anticipated film 'The Goat Life' (Aadujeevitham), starring Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead role is based on Najeeb's autobiographical book written by Benyamin. The film explores the loneliness the protagonist, Najeeb Mohammaed. The book also details his intimate moment with a goat in a moment of sheer desperation.

In an interview writer, Benyamin shared that director Blessy had shot the delicate scene between Najeeb and the goat. However, it did not make it to the final cut that is being shown in the theatres. Benyamin revealed that the scene had to be cut out after the censor bard demanded the same.

"We had written that in the script and even shot it. That scene was the soul of that movie. But, the censor board doesn't know that, right?," noted Benyamin.

Meanwhile, talking about the protagonist, Najeeb endured unimaginable suffering as he spent two years in a desolate desert, devoid of any human contact except for his cruel employer who subjected him to torment. Struggling with the lack of basic necessities, he had no spare clothes to change into and single-handedly tended to a herd of 700 goats. Gradually, he lost faith in his own humanity and began to identify himself as one of the goat

To embody the role of Najeeb, actor Prithviraj, who agreed to be a part of the film in 2008, had to undergone extreme transformation. The idea was that I looked like somebody who does not have access to enough food, and was starving most of the time. The only way I could do that is to actually adopt that process, which means that my transformation was almost entirely based on fasting. At times, I used to fast for up to 72 hours. I would drink water and black coffee, but nothing else," said that actor who lost 31 kgs and went through the process twice as the film's shoot was halted in between due to the pandemic.

'The Goat Life' is produced by Visual Romance, and is directed by Blessy, based on the novel written by Benyamin. AR Rahman is composing music for this masterpiece, which has cinematography handled by Sunil KS, and editing by Sreekar Prasad. The star-cast comprises Prithviraj Sukumaran, Amala Paul, Jimmy Jean-Louis, KR Gokul, Talib Al Balushi and Rik.