MELBOURNE, 24 March 2023: The documentary is simple and short. Set in the , Mudumalai National Park in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, a Tamil couple (Bomman & Bellie) look after two orphaned elephants (Raghu & Ammu) like their children. The bonding between them and the elephants amid the natural beauty speaks for itself. In fact, they are a family and the documentary’s every frame charts the care taken to look after them. The ambience of affection between humans and the animals looks natural. No doubt, it gives a conservation message. The insertion of other wildlife at places looks a bit out of place.
The Director told npr.org, ” “I wanted the audience to stop seeing animals as the ‘other’ and start seeing them as one of us.” This is what the movie is all about.
The Elephant Whisperers getting this year’s Academy Award for the ‘Best Documentary Short Film’ has spurred interest in the film. One hopes the conservation message gets through, in a world plagued by greedy environment destroying development cutting the habitat of animals.
I give this documentary 4 & half stars out of 5.
Name- The Elephant Whisperers
Genre – Short Documentary
Original language – Tamil
Director – Kartiki Gonsalves
Producer- Guneet Monga & Achin Jain
Running time – 41 minutes
Streaming at – Netflix
