Haathi Mere Saathi Director: - M. Thirumugam

Haathi Mere Saathi Cast - Rajesh Khanna, Tanuja

For an exact generation of lovers of Hindi cinema, Haathi Mere Saathi, circa 1971 — the story of AN orphan’s relationship with four elephants — contains a special resonance. Rajesh Khanna at the highest of his game, Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s version of ‘Baby Elephant Walk’, Kishore Kumar’s immortal songs, together with that anthemic Chal chal chal mere saathi, and a kitschy idiom that was illustration Seventies. If nothing else, Prabu Solomon’s film echoes that very same extraordinary aesthetic.

The world might have modified in these fifty years, the gold-biscuit smugglers might have metamorphosed into self-seeking politicians, bureaucrats and greedy MNCs, the hero’s considerations might have evolved from the non-public to the ecological and environmental, nevertheless once Bandev [Rana Daggubati] is said insane and administered electrical shock for daring to travel against the would possibly of the state — a sequence straight out of ’70s Hindi cinema — the decades stood still on behalf of me. and far of however Haathi Mere Saathi, circa 2021, plays out may be a throwback to a lost era of filmmaking, a potpourri of accidentally funny scenes at random and incoherently set up along.

Bandev, virtually God of the Forest, we have a tendency to square measure told, has planted quite a 100000 trees. for 3 generation, his family has been taking care of the forest lands during this such-and-such, anon. region of the country overrun with Naxals. He understands the language of the inmates of the forest and raves and rants (Daggubati sounding like Amitabh Bachchan in his present ‘hain’ mode) concerning the importance of elephant dung and its result on the ecology. once an official [Anant Mahadevan] sends in a very greedy real-estate shark to make a contemporary territorial division, uprooting the protected reserve, Bandev rises as a messiah to require on the system.

There’s a brother-sister Naxal pair, Arav [Bhuvan Arora] and Aarvi [Zoya Hussain], in the mix, as conjointly a journalist [Shriya Pilgaonkar], United Nations agency calls her father from the forest to urge her laptop computer (!) and a driver, Shankar [Pulkit Sharma]. Shankar starts off operating for the govt., payoff to fall soft on with Aarvi (in a ridiculously dangerous romantic plot purpose with ironical comedy by his sidekick), contains a amendment of heart once his loveable elephant dies and he sees the error of his ways in which, and finishes up receiving a ‘laal salaam’ from his comrades. That’s additional or less what I might fathom from this gravel apology of a script that operates by the dictum of ‘anything goes

I am told that the character of Bandev is modelled once environmental activist Jadav Payeng, ordained the ‘Forest Man of India’ by President Abdul Kalam. i'm positive Mr Payeng are going to be excited, notably given the superhero stunts Bandev executes in a very chase sequence that may have done fictional character proud — following a bag snatcher and his cronies, United Nations agency keep passing the bag in a very variation of a race, Bandev leaps on to the highest of a bus, jumps on to a automobile, smashing its windshield, and eventually slides underneath a rushing 16-wheeler to emerge from the opposite aspect and catch the wrongdoer. Mr Payeng’s real-life exploits and forestation drives should are a enter the park as compared.

This is only 1 of the numerous ludicrous sequences the film brims over with. and every one this in commission of what the filmmakers insist, and therefore the characters keep blow, may be a ‘film with a very important message’. Saving the elephants and therefore the atmosphere may be a welcome mission. however it's the film that's in dire would like of saving here from the incompetence of its manufacturers, and failing that, the viewer United Nations agency needs to endure a hundred and sixty minutes of this bodacious mess.