March, 13th, 2023 comes out to be a proud moment for Indian Film Industry. History has been made as the Indian Short Documentary Movie “The Elephant Whisperers” won Oscar Award. The movie is the first Indian documentary movie to achieve this glory.
The movie has won this best award beating the tough competition with contenders like How do you Measure a Year and Stranger at the Gate.
This documentary is a very sweet and heart-touching movie depicting the beautiful relationship between an orphaned baby elephant and his caretaker couple named Bellie and Bomman.
Kartiki Gonsalves the director of the movie in her award acceptance speech said, “I stand here today to speak of the sacred bond between us and our natural world, for the respect of indigenous communities and empathy towards other living beings we share space with, and finally, coexistence.”
The Elephant Whisperers is the first ever Indian Short Movie to win an Oscar in its category. Earlier in the past two films “The House That Ananda Built” (1969) and another “An Encounter” (1979) were nominated but could not make history.
The Story Brief of The Elephant Whisperers
The movie was shot in the beautiful scenic view of the Theppakadu Elephant Camp, Tamilnadu which is inside the Mudumulai Tiger Reserves. Bomman and Bellie an elephant caretaker couple take care of a baby orphan elephant named Raghu. The baby elephant was separated from his herd after getting injured. Ammu, a female elephant calf was also handed over to Belli to be taken care of.
The couple was from a tribal community known as Kattunayakan protecting the wildlife and forests for ages. A very close bonding was created between the couple and animals as the time passes. The Raghu was handed over to another caretaker once he attains adolescent by the state forest department being more experienced in handling elephants reached their adolescence age.
The couple gets broken with emotions as they miss Raghu deeply. The movie will give you a deep dive into the ocean of emotions with its heart-touching scenes of love, affection and devotion between elephants and their caretakers. The scene in which Ammu wipes away the tears of broken Belli as she failed to control her emotions on the separation of Raghu will make the tears come out of your eyes.
This small yet big in its content movie has shown that how original and beautiful content can win the hearts of people and can stand firm against all big films…
Movie Details
Director: Kartiki Gonsalves
Writers: Kartiki Gonsalves (Story Development), Priscilla Gonsalves, Garima Pura Patiyaalvi (Story Development)
Genres: Documentary, Short
Date of Release: December 8, 2022 (United States)
Country of Origin: India
Movie Language: Tamil
Production Company: Sikhya Entertainment
Runtime: 41 minutes
Colour: Color
