ALAPPUZHA: When Najeeb Muhammad, the real-life protagonist of the novel 'Aadujeevitham', written by Benyamin, met his reel-life character in the eponymously named movie, directed by Blessy, he was visibly moved.
“The film paints a more dastardly picture of my experience in the desert. I was in tears when the movie ended. Prithviraj lives his character,” an emotional Najeeb said outside Ernakulam’s Vanitha Theatre, where he viewed the premiere show on Thursday, amid the selfie-seeking throng of moviegoers.
In his native village of Arattupuzha, near Haripad, where Najeeb even has a fans’ association, residents welcomed the silver-screen depiction of the harrowing stage in his life. The association, which is led by panchayat member L Mansoor, is planning to arrange transportation to a theatre in Kayamkulam or Haripad to any resident of ward 18 keen to watch the film.
In election season, this kind of attention could not go unnoticed. And the Election Commission decided to tap it by naming Najeeb an icon of its Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme. Not to be left behind, various candidates of Alappuzha constituency also found time to interact with the man of the moment.
Najeeb spent around two years on a goat farm in Saudi Arabia where he suffered enormously. Benyamin narrated his life as a goatherd in the novel, which went to be an all-time bestseller in Malayalam literature. Najeeb later escaped from the hands of his Arab landlord. After walking days through the desert without food and water he made it to Riyadh where a fellow Malayali cared for him.
He later surrendered before police, who arranged for his deportation to India in August 1995. Najeeb later spent 20 years in Bahrain. He now works as a fisherman in his native village, where he lives with his wife Sabiyath and daughter Safeena. His son Safeer, who was working in Oman, recently returned home. The run-up to the release of the movie was also painful for Najeeb, who had to endure the death of his grand-daughter -- the chid of another of his daughters Safiyath -- last week