Deciphering Deserts and Dreams: A Narrative Interplay between Literature and Cinema in Benyamin's Aadujeevitham

AbstractAdapting literature into films often faces many challenges in portraying thecomplexities of themes of the novel with the same intensity. Film is a form ofart, the same as a work of literature,and adaptation bridges a gap betweenliterature and cinema that creates a mutual relationship between these twospheres. This paper explores the interplay between the literary and cinematicnarratives in the Malayalam film Aadujeevitham (2024), directed by therenowned filmmaker Blessy, which is an adaptation of Benyamin’s acclaimednovel of the same name. Both the novel and the film Aadujeevitham tell thetraumatic experience of a migrant worker from Kerala in the Gulf who issubjected to inhumane conditions by his employer in the vast desert land. Thispaper aims to analyze the film and examine how the visual mediumreinterprets the protagonist’s physical and psychological struggles in the harshdeserts of the Gulf with a sensory proximity that the novel evokes throughcontemplation. The study also highlights the transformative power of cinemain bringing literary narratives to life and offering new perspectives, especiallyin the wide milieu of Malayalam cinema.Keywords: Adaptation, literary narrative, cinematic narrative, visual media,Malayalam cinema