Sunday, June 03, 2012

Tiger Dynasty

There are wide range of opportunities and possibilities in this world. I grabbed one such opportunity today. Accidentally  it happened for me to see an invitation in 'Save Tiger' facebook page. It was for the screening of 'Tiger Dynasty' in 59th National Film Festival. The word 'Tiger' just attracted me. Being a wildlife enthusiast, it is no wonder I added this programme to my Sunday's schedule.


Tiger is always a majestic animal to watch, a worth predator to fear and a beautiful creature to love. It feels great and gives pride when such a majestic and courageous creature happen to be your National Animal. I 'm proud of it.

Documenting a wildlife film isn't an easy job. It is not like an ordinary masala movie where some itching sentiments, an item number, two duet songs, a title song, few comedy scenes and four or five fight sequence will suffice. In wildlife films also you have breathtaking action sequences, a sentimental story, negative characters, love making, fearsome roars, a hero and a heroine. The difference is, it is all real in latter's case. Even shooting a wildlife film is not that easy. It is easy to manage a top star's call-sheet. The artists here are not easy to manage and shoot. Here many times, it is not the director but the artists who say 'pack up'. More over you need time, money and passion.



The story starts with the capture of a pair of tigers in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan. Baghani and her male partner Rajore, our heroine and hero, were airlifted to Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in the same state. Villain? I do not want to keep the suspense for long. The main negative character is none other than us, humans. The entire story revolves around these two and their struggle for existence. Sariska is a tiger reserve in paper but a tiger hunting ground in reality. The entire tiger population in STR was wiped out years ago. So a pair of tigers were introduced under 'Project Tiger' to repopulate the Sariska.

With poachers behind bars, life cannot be expected to be easy. New home and new challenges. Did they made it? is the end in the touching story. Entertainment is guaranteed. Hero, heroine, villain, romancing scenes, sentiment, tragedy, breath taking action sequences, new hope and many more like we see in a feature film. Film lovers of all genres will love this one.

Cinematography was superb, to say in one word. No wonder it won best cinematography award for Mr.S.Nallamuthu, who is also the director of the film. It is always hard to follow any animal in Indian jungles.  The two awards that he won are hard to earn. It is an output of pure passion and shear hard work. For a wildlife lover you have many in this film - ambush, patience in hunting, detailing of tiger's behaviour, even a tiger eating grass and many more. Watch it to know what I missed!



The detailing part was very informative. The meaning of every action including licking of paws, tail movements, scenting and many more very closely shot and clearly narrated. Many would have watched this in Documentary channels, but this is truly an Indian version for you! The background voice is another thing that deserves appreciation. The film ran for 53 minutes which is after editing a mammoth 70 hour footage.

For those who love films like 'La marche de l'empereur', 'The Clove', 'The Nature Series', 'Galapagos' and The Great Migrations' you have another one to add. People of all age groups throng in line to watch this. TD was a houseful show with maximum number of audience appearing in 59th National Film Festival. Even the barricade wall was filled with men, women and children.

 Tiger Dynasty is a documentary of two newly introduced tigers in STR. So do not expect any solutions for tiger poaching and man-tiger conflicts. Children will definitely like TD. TD is an apt film to create interest in children and even among  all age groups about conservation of environment and wildlife.

I traveled from Karol Bagh to Sirifort Auditorium for the screening. Altered many of my programmes. Traveled for the first time in Delhi Metro and many more. But what I feasted cannot be quantified. On my way after the show I saw a mother feeding four the street dogs with her home prepared food. A touching end to my travel.

This is one of many opportunities I got via Facebook, which is mostly rated as a time killer by many. There are many such good examples where FB, Orkut and other social network webs played a great role in making people informative.



You have to be a good observer to write critics. This is not a critic, but an experience.

A Must Watch Film!

Since 1991 nearly 41% of tiger's habitat was destroyed. Atleast we had the opportunity to see it in wild and captive. Let our children do not read 'Once upon a time when Tiger was alive...'. With three out of nine tiger species already went extinct there are only 3,000 left to save this charismatic megafauna. This is a severe reduction for an animal that roamed tens of thousands at the turn of 20th century. International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) classified it as an endangered species in its conservation status. It is now or never.  Save Tigers!!!


Save Tigers! Save Big Cats!! Save Nature!!!

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