The Elephant Whisperers: A True Story of Human-Animal Bond 🐘♥️🐾

'The Elephant Whisperers’ directed by Kartiki Gonslaves is best known for its scenic beauty and straightforward storytelling. With 7.5/10 stars from IMDb, this piece of art has also won the 2022 Oscar Award for Best Short Documentary Film at the 95th Academy Awards. Fused with mild puns and strong emotions, the story revolves around the life of an old couple who are Mahouts (elephant-keepers) named Bomman and Bellie. They are entitled as the first couple in South India to raise 2 orphaned elephants successfully. Whereas, Raghu and Ammu (the rescued elephants) are the stars of this documentary who were on the verge of life and death before being fostered by the couple.

Let’s have a deeper look into the strengths of this super-inspiring documentary! ✨️

• The documentary has expressively shown the true colors of what it means to have a sustainable, sensible, and loving co-existence with animals. With the right intentions and commitment to serve, any animal lover like Bomman can happily live and serve animals like elephants.

• The documentary shows the inspiring heroic shades of true human nature, no matter what comes their way as hardship, the couple always steps ahead for their children (Raghu and Ammu). This not only brings a fountain of emotions in the spectator’s eyes but lights up their willpower too.

• With unresistible cinematography by the whole team, The Elephant Whisperers has given us the true joy of the spectacular views of Madumalai National Park (at the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka border) by unveiling the real life of the forest community. The Kattunayakan community which is full of life, hard work, and belongingness is displayed genuinely.

• This documentary has proved to be a “lifesaver”, where the wind of love has been revitalized with inner love, kindness, and care for our wild friends. Whereas, the background sound and music are also mesmerizing and true to the table.

• What not? The documentary excellently displays the true traditions of the Kattunayakan tribe, their beautiful custom of worshipping elephants and celebrating every high-low of their lives in harmony with animals. 

Now, let’s discuss some weaknesses cum improvements that could be done to make this documentary a mere game-changer!👀

• Well, to be honest, this masterpiece already possesses all the essential ingredients of a true documentary. Yet, other elements like the darker side which these forest people suffer could be shown better as well like the continuous struggles to make their livelihood, the lack of children’s education, and health facilities, and the suppression they face by the officials.

• While showcasing the existence-crises faced by animals due to forest fires, and dangerous human activities, their lives suffer and thousands of animals die daily which has been shown. The question here arises, what steps are being taken by the government and the nearby people to save those dying animals and stop more destruction? Saving a few elephants can’t save the remaining animals. This could be asked or shown by the director to bridge the cut-off ties between the forest people and the outer world.

• Besides this, the documentary should have covered a few more important topics with more running time for a full-fledged and thought-provoking experience which could have turned into better future implementations for a healthier and safer forest life.

Those were my thoughts about “The Elephant Whisperers” with 8.5/10 stars from my side. I recommend you too, to watch the same if you truly love nature and its creations and desire to submerge yourself into this beautiful co-existence of human and animal affection-ship. ♥️🐘