One with nature

Nonika Singh

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“The moment you say documentary, people switch off.” But Oscar-winning Kartiki Gonsalves’ documentary The Elephant Whisperers made people sit up, pay attention and not only laud all the way, but also spare a thought or two about our relationship with nature.

Indeed, she agrees environment is not on the top of people’s agenda. Often seen as something at cross purpose with development/modernisation she feels people fail to appreciate what we have; the vast natural beauty of our environment. In fact, one of the core ideas of her debut film was to reconnect people with nature’s majestic biodiversity. However, as she is on the jury of All Living Things Environmental Film Festival, she thinks youngsters are assessing a lot of information and are playing a bigger part in protecting the environment. Still, as a rule, the way documentaries are perceived in India is rather lopsided if not outright erroneous. Most people do not associate it with entertainment and after a hard day’s work, she feels, “They do not want to be educated.”

I grew up in wild spaces, so I understood wild animals at an early stage. Through The Elephant Whisperers, I wanted people to stop seeing animals as the other, for we are all connected. I also wanted to give indigenous people a voice. — Kartiki Gonsalves

Emotional journey

Her film undisputedly is much more than a bagful of information. Though it tells us a lot of things about the majestic elephant, at the heart of it, there is an emotional journey, the bond between the caretaker couple and an infant elephant.

But whether it touches a chord for we come from the land where elephant God is the most iconic, revered and loved image, she is not quite sure. Rather her question is, “If there are so many festivals celebrating Lord Ganesha, why are we not paying attention to this beautiful social and emotional animal? Today their numbers are down to anything from 30,000 to 35,000.” As a documentary-maker she does not look at herself as an activist, crusader or chronicler, only as a conservationist. Of course, when she began filming, it was an organic journey with no preconceived notions or ideology in her mind. Unlike fiction, where script comes first, in documentary filmmaking, she states, “You start with what you have.” It certainly helped that what she had before her, the breathtaking Mudumalai National Park in the Nilgiri Mountains, was simply ‘a thing of beauty and joy forever,’ which the keen photographer and cinematographer in her was only too happy to capture. Indeed, her language is largely visual. Besides, she wanted to impress upon the beauty of what we have, “Often, people tend to pull out negative parts.” As a documentary filmmaker she thinks, “You have both the power and the responsibility and need to be mindful of what you are putting out for the world to see. What is the message you want to convey.” Indeed, Oscar means greater responsibility and one at 36, she smiles, is a lot to process and do, like ‘more public appearances’. Fortunately, it also means better funding, more opportunities to do the kind of work she cares about.

Up next

Her next documentary is on Orca whales, drawing a parallel between the very social and intelligent mammals and First Nations people on the Pacific Northwest of Canada, both of which are matriarchal beings. No, this time she won’t be teaming with her Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga. Besides, the film will be feature length and the indigenous community will come on board as active participants. Be it India or Canada where her next film will be shot with some spectacular dive into underwater too, she reposes great faith in the knowledge of indigenous people. She nods most emphatically and agrees that they should certainly be part of policy-making.

Meanwhile, she is ready to devote any length of time to pursue her passion. If The Elephant Whisperers took her six years in the making, rest assured the next one won’t come out in a hurry either. She says, “Whatever I do, even if it takes many years of my life, it has to be with my heart and soul. I don’t want to be another run-of-the-mill documentary filmmaker.” Award-winning for sure, but she doesn’t think Oscar up her sleeve will have any bearing on her next project. Only her passion would!