Indian film industry produces large number of movies every year. Most of them are in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and other regional languages. While Hindi movies were having national base, most of the regional movies were limited to regional viewers. But now with the availability of subtitles and rising good taste of the audiences the regional movies are also being enjoyed pan India. In fact the regional movies particularly from South India are better in quality and content than Hindi cinema. Yet there were hardly any entries from India to the Oscar Academy awards. But all this is changing now.
In the 95th Oscars or Academy awards this year India has done exceptionally well. It has won the oscar in Best song category and Best Documentary Short Subject category. The Elephant Whisperers, a tamil langauge short story movie has won the Oscar in the short documentary. It competed with Haul out, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger At The Gate, and How Do You Measure A Year?
Movie is directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, Kartiki Gonsalves and Doug Bush. It is the first Indian film to win an Oscar in this category and the third to be nominated after The House That Ananda Built and An Encounter With Faces which competed for Best Documentary Short in 1969 and 1979 respectively.
The Elephant Whisperers, set in the Mudumalai National Park located in the Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu India. A section of the park rescues and cares for the orphaned elephants. The story revolves around one such elephant who was on the verge of death when a couple Bomman and Belli, an indigenous couple take it under their care. They name it Raghu. The elephant calf grows up into a beautiful adult. The couple who lost their girl child treat it as their son. The documentary celebrates not just the bond that develops between them as well as the natural beauty of their surroundings. The Elephant Whisperers was released on Netflix in December 2022. It has English subtitles. The duration of the film is 39 minutes. It is a must seen movie.
