Charming Disney-style storytelling with stunning
jungle visuals mark this rare documentary to reach theatres
A
group of jungle cats is enjoying some liesurely family time when danger
slithers towards their rocky hangout. As if on cue, a particularly curious
kitten appears from behind a large boulder, its saucer-shaped eyes gazing at the reptile. “One bite from a spectacled cobra is usually
fatal,” a familiar voice in the background tells us. “They’re one of India’s
most dangerous snakes.” Tension hangs thick in the air. The baby seems mesmerised by that raised
hood. Will the cobra get near enough to strike?
Just as you think it’s all over, the little one decides to back off, the
tension dissipates and the predator glides away.
It
is this level of skilful storytelling – brimming with suspense, romance, tales of love, lust, self-preservation
instincts and, if you look close enough, the meaning of consent in sexual
relations – that makes Wild Karnataka
the pleasurable experience it is. The 54-minute-long documentary directed by
Bangalore-based conservationists Amoghavarsha J.S. and Kalyan Varma, presented by the Karnataka
Forest Department, and narrated by the legendary British
broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough, this week becomes one of
those rare documentaries to make it to mainstream theatres across India.
If your diet consists of Nat Geo Wild and Animal Planet, you perhaps
know this already: that watching beasts in their natural habitat can be no less
amusing than seeing a live-action masala-filled Kollywood/Bollywood/Tollywood fiction
feature about humans or a Disney animation flick on pandas, lions and
wildebeest. In Wild Karnataka, as
a leopard stealthily stakes out a pack of langurs, a pride of
preening peacocks compete for the attention of peahens, a she-lizard rejects
the overtures of a he-lizard, a cannibalistic mother abandons her children for
their own sake,
a dragon flies and a group of otters bully a tiger, it is impossible not
to be drawn to – and into – the humour, poignance and grandeur on
display.
Such
exciting visuals and storyboards are possible only when the crew involved has
immense patience, a deep knowledge of nature and empathy for their
surroundings. Not surprisingly, Wild
Karnataka’s makers let on that they shot 400-plus hours of footage over 4
years. The time spent in prep and waiting is obviously immeasurable.
Wild
Karnataka is an English film that serves as a sort of Beginner’s Guide To Nature Documentaries combined with an Introduction to Karnataka. The makers
are planning a Kannada version fronted by a major celebrity from the state. The
film is intentionally not esoteric, targeted as it is at an audience of
non-experts. The stunning visuals by a large team of camerapersons and
Grammy-winning Bangalore-based composer Ricky Kej’s background score that is
sedate, mischievous and witty by turns, combined with the
sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, at all times fascinating narrative is
an excellent blend for this purpose, barring one important concern.
The
gap in Wild Karnataka is the absolute
absence of any reference to environmental degradation.
The filmmakers have opted instead for a fairtytale-like account of the
state’s wealth of flora and fauna. In an interview shortly after the Delhi
première, Amoghavarsha describes this choice as strategic.
“I need
to know the contents of my house before I care enough to protect it,” he says,
citing this quote from the Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum: “In the end we will conserve only what we
love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we
are taught.” The filmmaker explains
that the goal, with Wild Karnataka,
is to usher in a “consciousness change” by building awareness. “We wanted to
leave a beautiful moment of joy and pride in the audience, which they could
take home,” he says, “and I promise you, all these people will do whatever
they can in their own ways because they would have been moved by the film.” Sounds logical enough.
Amoghavarsha proceeds to elaborate on how the world chides India for
its poor conservation efforts while, despite India’s massive human population,
“we still have elephants and tigers left” whereas “big animals have been wiped
out in the West. So my question is, if everyone says things are not
so good, and I agree, but how do we still have these animals? Because we as a
culture are tolerant towards animals. Now unless we celebrate that, people will
not notice why it has worked.”
He then
adds: “If the patriotic and religious people of
India have to care for the country’s biodiversity, we have to take the path of
patriotism and national pride. It is basically what works for different
audiences. We can’t say everyone has to understand climatic conditions, because
it is too heavy for everyone to understand. We have to use the right tools for
the right kind of messaging.”
This is
a slippery slope, considering how patriotism has been distorted to a
destructive nationalism in today’s India and religion has been weaponised for
centuries. But he speaks with conviction and I decide to leave this discussion
for another day. Because today is a day for Wild
Karnataka, and despite the questions
weighing on my mind, there is no doubt that this is a
delightfully entertaining and educational encounter with the beasts and
landscapes of southern India’s largest state, rich in ways that are little
known to the rest of India and even among its own people.
In a film filled with revelations, one of Wild Karnataka’s numerous sit-up-and-take-notice moments comes
when Attenborough’s voice tells us in its opening seconds, “One quarter of India’s
plant and animal species are found here”, and later when he says, “Karnataka is
home to more tigers than any other place in the world. The 400 individuals that
live here make up 10% of the global tiger population.” Amoghavarsha confirms that these figures – startling to say
the least – have been verified with multiple sources from government reports to
independent research papers, adding a caveat that tiger
numbers may have marginally changed since the documentary was
readied.
Even
if a representative of Wild Karnataka
did not say so, it becomes evident while watching the film that its
determinedly light-hearted tone is aimed at making it
accessible to the
masses, to inspire wonderment in the viewer in addition to affection and
admiration for the creatures whose stories it tells. Like those industrious
sand bubbler crabs who deliver a quick lesson in physics as they build
individual shelters for themselves on a wet beach before the tide comes in. Or
the simian silhouetted against the sky as it bounds across giant rock
formations in one of the world’s most picturesque locations. Or a male frog performing a hilarious mating dance
that Prabhu Deva’s imagination could not have choreographed.
Wild
Karnataka is
also a reminder of why, despite a proliferation of online streaming platforms
and an increasing use of cellphones as film-viewing media, theatres will never
die: because some films are born to be watched on a mega screen in a darkened
hall filled with strangers as awe-struck as you are.
“The
baseline we always kept is that kids should have fun with this film,” says
Amoghavarsha. Children will speak for themselves, but let the record show
that this article is written by an adult who is completely floored.
This
article was published on Firstpost on January 21, 2020:
Photographs courtesy: Team Wild
Karnataka
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