When silence speaks

Goat Days, a book about a man forced into slavery in Saudi Arabia, is getting a film adaptation

-  BECHU S.

Most pan-Indian mega-hits from the south have something in common—a super-human alpha male who has conquered every weakness. Be it the ex-cop who can decapitate people with a single swing of the machete (Jailer), or the gangster who goes on a rampage inside the Parliament to avenge his dead wife (KGF 2), or the prince who breaches the heavily-guarded fort of an evil king by single-handedly catapulting palm trees at it (Baahubali 2). The protagonist is too macho for cheap sentimentality, and any tear he sheds is amply compensated by the blood of the enemy.

Enter Najeeb Muhammed, the hero of writer Benyamin's 2008 book Goat Days (Aadujeevitham in Malayalam). He is an ordinary man who lands in Saudi Arabia with the hope of a better life for his family. In the dunes of 'the Gulf', he is subjected to unimaginable misery when he is forced into slavery as a goatherd by a cruel master, with little chance of ever meeting his family again. The novel, based on real-life events, is one of the top sellers in Malayalam. Penguin described it as “a universal tale of loneliness and alienation”. It is just this universality that will underpin the success of The Goat Life, the book's pan-Indian, multi-language film adaptation, feels Benyamin.

“Because suffering is the same everywhere,” he says.