Director Blessy’s Aaudjeevitham was honoured with nine awards, including the jury’s special mention for acting, at the recently announced While Blessy won the awards for best director and screenplay, Prithviraj Sukumaran was chosen as the best actor. Speaking with us after the awards sweep, Blessy sounded proud of his team and the recognition for their efforts. “We always worked towards delivering the best and after seeing the final output, I knew the film deserved the awards.
The biggest award is still the acceptance from the general public. Even after the release on Netflix, people from various parts of the world continue to watch and appreciate it.” Though all the nine awards will be memorable for him, Blessy said it’s the jury’s special mention for KR Gokul that brought him the most joy.
Aadujeevitham had Gokul in the role of Hakkim, who along with Prithviraj’s Najeeb, gets trapped in Saudi Arabian deserts, where they are forced into slavery. “Gokul’s win is truly heartening because he sacrificed a lot, including his education for the film. Despite not being a professional artist, he dedicated himself completely like Prithviraj.
” Aadujeevitham, an adaptation of Benyamin’s bestselling novel of the same name, endured multiple obstacles during its 16-year-long arduous journey. One among them was the challenge of bringing such a hugely popular novel to the screen, which is why Blessy feels it’s a huge validation to win the award for best-adapted screenplay. The director, who has earlier won the best screenplay award for Thanmathra (2005), said, “Screenplay is the inception point of it all and during this period, you’re all alone.
While adapting a literary work, you’re supposed to make many crucial decisions, including what to include and omit. It’s not easy when the novel is also such a hugely popular one.” Though mostly happy about the wins, Blessy is also upset with a couple of choices by the jury, including the decision to not award AR Rahman.
“It’s a huge disappointment. In fact, that was one category I expected the most. I know he won a National award on the same day, but not honouring his work in Aadujeevitham hurts me personally.
That one snub has taken away the sheen from all the other awards,” said Blessy, adding that he can understand the overlook for the background score. “It’s usually awarded to youngsters to encourage them, which is fine, but I don’t know why they didn’t recognise the songs. We all know how Even recently, I saw a video of a child singing it in a relief camp.
It’s rare for a Malayalam film to feature an Arab song and a Palestinian folk composition. It’s a work of such international standard, akin to Hans Zimmer’s,” sighs the filmmaker. Blessy also wondered why Aadujeevitham, which won awards in all the major categories, was still not chosen as the ‘Best Film’.
“I’m not here to stir controversies, but it still remains a question mark. Maybe they gave us the award for ‘popular film’ because of its exceptional run in theatres. I don’t know the criteria works; it’s for those who make such decisions to clarify.
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