‘The Elephant Whisperers’ documentary review: Strikingly lush safari on coexistence of man and nature

Surrounded by the Nilgiris, and just beyond the Mayar river, Bomman, Bellie, and their child Raghu live in the heart of the Theppakadu Elephant camp, at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. The Elephant Whisperers Director: Kartiki Gonsalves Duration: 41 minutes Storyline: In Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, a family of circumstance is formed when a young elephant calf is separated from its herd and placed into the care of two humans There is a solid theme of the symbiosis between nature and man that runs like a constant thread through the 41-minute duration of the film, during which Bomman, Bellie, and Raghu’s lives enter unchartered but exciting territories in each other’s presence. With this, the documentary informs us that Bomman and Bellie become the ‘first couple to successfully raise two orphaned elephants in South India’. The documentary is narrated by Bomman and Bellie only, and in telling the story of their life with Raghu, human’s tampering with nature seamlessly becomes part of their conversation with the audience. Bomman and Bellie are also never taken out of the forest to tell their story, with the viewer eagerly following behind Bomman as he talks about Raghu’s picky eating, or sitting beside Bellie as she recalls her first meeting with Raghu.