I Told Prithviraj That He Should Not Look Confident While Playing Najeeb: Blessy

Next week will see the release of the Malayalam magnum opus Aadujeevitham (2024), a dream of Blessy, one of the biggest directors in Malayalam cinema, that took around 16 years to become a reality. The film, which has been in various stages of its production for many years now is the latest addition to Blessy's filmography, which consists of films like Kaazcha (2004), Thanmathra (2005), Bhramaram (2009) and Pranayam (2011), all of which are revered as masterpieces in their own right. Blessy is known for his rooted examination of human behaviour coupled with complex screenplays that dig deeper into the psyche of the protagonists.

Blessy is a veteran of post-200’s new-wave Malayalam cinema, having made a name for himself as a master of character studies, despite having only a handful of films to his credit. Aadueejvitham already feels like a late-style update on the themes and fascinations of Blessy’s enviable oeuvre that has never shied away from capturing humans caught in a struggle with their inner demons in the worst of times. The director has been working on the on-screen adaptation of Benyamin’s best-selling book of the eponymous title, for close to fourteen years now. The project had been on the backburner due to the large production cost, challenging schedules, prompted by the pandemic, and the frequent hangups in the production timelines.

The film tells the story of an immigrant worker trapped inside a slave plantation in the desert, trying to make his way out to his homeland alone, and there is immense reader interest in the film adaptation. The team associated with the film has also added value to the long wait, with an international cast consisting of Jimmy Jean-Louis, Amala Paul, Rik Aby, and Talib al Balushi in important supporting roles. AR Rahman composed the music and original score for the film, while Sunil K S Cranks the camera. 

Blessy has been away from the spotlight after an eleven-year gap, after delivering back-to-back contemporary classics. “If I were doing films just for the sake of doing, I could have churned out more films. I have worked for 18 years in my career as an associate director, and this is my 20th year as a director. I made my debut in 2004 with Kaazhcha. I have only made eight films till now. In my first nine years, I made 7 films, so it was like one film a year. For the last 11 years, I have worked only on this one film. For me, when I am doing something, there should be some commitment to cinema and society as a whole. I have followed the same principle from my first film to even select the subjects.”

“Even though I have not made any films in the past 11 years, I feel that nobody has forgotten me. I think anyone who has seen any of my work has not forgotten me and that makes me so happy. That is not because of me but due to the quality of the films themselves,” he reflects.

Aadujeeivtham is based on one of the most popular novels in Kerala’s literary history, which has been a memorable reading experience for every Malayalee at one point or the other in their lives. The director also has his take on the whole process of adaptation and the expectations of absolute fidelity to the source material. “The relationship between the book Aadujeevitham and the film is basically about the translation of a novel into a screenplay. I don't think this can be answered in a few words, I would probably require a few hours to convey my thoughts on this. I will have to give a lecture based on my experiences. But I feel like sharing it once the film comes out, for the sake of the young people who are starting their journeys.”

Blessy also feels there are obvious trade-offs in the process of translating a written text in chapter form into a screenplay format that has to communicate ideas visually. “This story is told in 43 chapters in the book. In the novel, each chapter may focus on one emotion, one time period, and so forth, so there need not be a direct continuity between chapters. If one part is about the hero’s loneliness, the next chapter can be about him interacting with others. So there is no emphasis on continuity in the novel form.”

Blessy also adds, “But in film, you need to follow the emotional continuity of the character. While reading you are always editing it in your head, and unlike cinema, you are not forced to sit down in a chair and finish the whole book in a single go. You get many breaks in between the reading process. But cinema is different, even if you get the tea breaks, you don't lose the narrative tissue in a film. So while making this film, I had to be mindful of these elements of cinema like time and space that set it apart from literature.”

When asked about designing the performance pitch of Prithviraj Sukumaran in his adaptation, Blessy emphasized his intense research-based process with leading men of all his films, focused on creating a roster of their past films to avoid repetition. “Each director has their own style of working with actors before they start shooting their films. Coming to Prithviraj, we all know that he is a person with a lot of confidence in real life. He is well aware of all things about cinema, especially the technical aspects of filmmaking and the technology side. But this reflects in his eyes. You feel the confidence in his gait and energy level when he speaks and moves. So from the beginning, I was clear that my character Najeeb is someone who was not able to study above the fifth grade and he is a common man who enjoys eating ‘Porotta and Beef’. So I tried to bring this character’s background into the performance.”

The director also feels the actor was open to the process of transforming fully on screen, going the extra mile in terms of effort and time spent on the same, “I told Prithviraj that while playing ‘Najeeb’ he should not seem like someone with this level of confidence. There should not be this much energy in the way he is as a person. In certain scenes, when his reaction exceeds Najeeb’s pitch, I tell him to tone it down. Also, his eyes in the film’s initial posters, you will know that the eyes we see are not Prithviraj Sukumaran’s eyes, they are the character’s. Only because we clearly communicated, we were able to achieve these minute details. Even if you look now, I feel you can see that it is not Prithviraj’s eyes, those eyes encapsulate the fear, agony, and hope of the character Najeeb.”