About a few days back I HAD to see a movie called Kaal (is it really a movie??? Well, lets not dive into that fundamental question right now!). I know you might be wondering why the heck is Atul talking about Bollywood movie! I had almost forgotten about it until I read an article in a reputed wildlife magazine: Sanctuary Asia. And thought of sharing this information with you.
I will only reiterate interesting facts I read in the article. It only corroborated my faith that movie is full of utter dinosaur shit (qualifier 'dinosaur' is to emphasize quantity!) Ever since the movie was made, it's in controversy amongst the environmentalist and naturalists and even law has tried to bite it hard. Even before the release of Kaal, Supreme Court as well as Uttaranchal Government sent notices to producers for allegedly violating the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and shooting film in core areas of the jungle. Since trained animals (tigers and pythons) were used in the film, producers were also charged under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The movie was touted as India's first 'wildlife' movie with a message and guess what... it failed miserably. The characters in the movie themselves portrayed utter lack of knowledge/respect of forest etiquettes. Such an ignorance is common amongst the tourists, but not expected from a supposedly 'tiger expert' Krish. Too much of utter nonsense: They land up in the Park in monsoon when it's closed, they chain smoking on the way through forest, they hunt, wander off alone on foot, bribe their way into restricted core areas and show complete disregard for any rules! No wonder they pay with their lives! But if movie has some message, the why not all of them die??? And why Kali plays the role to avenge, is he the caretaker of the jungle? Why not mother nature? Seeing the murdered bodies, we easily place that it's not the deed of any jungle animal, there has to be damned human factor! What lessons does this apparently wildlife movie implant! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
It is GREATLY regrettable that given the current tiger crisis the film-makers did not choose to get into the VALID problems facing national parks such as poaching and wildlife trade. Potentially, Kaal would have been a really groundbreaking film!
Actually, in a sense it really has been a ground-breaking film: did break the ground (in literal sense) and got buried deep into some dead dinosaur shit!
P.S. All links provided here were not present in the original article, so if you find any incorrect links, feel free to report them to me.
I will only reiterate interesting facts I read in the article. It only corroborated my faith that movie is full of utter dinosaur shit (qualifier 'dinosaur' is to emphasize quantity!) Ever since the movie was made, it's in controversy amongst the environmentalist and naturalists and even law has tried to bite it hard. Even before the release of Kaal, Supreme Court as well as Uttaranchal Government sent notices to producers for allegedly violating the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and shooting film in core areas of the jungle. Since trained animals (tigers and pythons) were used in the film, producers were also charged under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The movie was touted as India's first 'wildlife' movie with a message and guess what... it failed miserably. The characters in the movie themselves portrayed utter lack of knowledge/respect of forest etiquettes. Such an ignorance is common amongst the tourists, but not expected from a supposedly 'tiger expert' Krish. Too much of utter nonsense: They land up in the Park in monsoon when it's closed, they chain smoking on the way through forest, they hunt, wander off alone on foot, bribe their way into restricted core areas and show complete disregard for any rules! No wonder they pay with their lives! But if movie has some message, the why not all of them die??? And why Kali plays the role to avenge, is he the caretaker of the jungle? Why not mother nature? Seeing the murdered bodies, we easily place that it's not the deed of any jungle animal, there has to be damned human factor! What lessons does this apparently wildlife movie implant! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
It is GREATLY regrettable that given the current tiger crisis the film-makers did not choose to get into the VALID problems facing national parks such as poaching and wildlife trade. Potentially, Kaal would have been a really groundbreaking film!
Actually, in a sense it really has been a ground-breaking film: did break the ground (in literal sense) and got buried deep into some dead dinosaur shit!
P.S. All links provided here were not present in the original article, so if you find any incorrect links, feel free to report them to me.
