Synopsis
Hathi is a Hindi word for elephant. This film is a story about the friendship between an elephant and a mahout, the person who tames elephants, who was born hearing elephants' cries. A boy named Makbul lives in a village near the forest in south India. Despite his mother's opposition, he leaves for the forest along with his mahout father to learn the taming of elephants. A just-born elephant named Vikrama is given to Makbul and the two become inseparable. Makbul's father is struck by pneumonia and dies. Makbul and Vikrama grow together. Now the times have changed and there are few things an elephant and a mahout can do in the tree-felling business. Upon a government order, Vikrama is auctioned. Vikrama, sent to an unfamiliar place alone without Makbul, kills a mahout who deals with him violently. At last Makbul and Vikrama meet again and start a happy journey together without thinking where to go. Since the ancient times, elephants have occupied special status in Indian culture. Elephants were deemed as deity. According to Arthashastra, a B.C. 3 century sutra, people who killed elephants were condemned to death. However, such an attitude has changed inevitably in India as the country was inundated in the sweeping waves of modernization. This film, through a simple story involving a mahout and an elephant, testifies to the change that affects the origin of human civilization. The change also includes the destruction of tradition and the transformation of the way of life. In rendering these themes, this film adopts a low voice instead of a high tone. Visual image and the sound of nature often takes the place of dialogue. These methods arouse rich feelings instead of direct recognition, among the viewers. This film proceeds as heavy and slow as the elephant and the piles of Indian traditions, but there is no question that it is trying to talk about "truth" and convey it to the viewers. Truth is a banal thing in the eyes of the modern-day people, but it still needs to be reminded.