Filmmaker Sangita Iyer at the venue of the film festival in Goa. Photo: G. Ragesh / OnmanoramaPanaji: The cruelty meted out to captive elephants in Kerala has sparked an outrage among a large section of delegates of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here, thanks to Sangita Iyer's documentary - "Gods in Shackles".
The film, a neatly packed account of the cruelties on captive elephants and a call to respect animal rights, was received with applause by the audience Sunday when it was screened as part of the Indian Panorama segment at the film festival.
Beginning with the much celebrated door opening ceremony of Thrissur Pooram in which famous elephant Thechikode Ramachandran takes part, the 92-minute documentary in English goes through the daily-life ordeals that almost all the captive elephants in the southern state of India go through. It portrays the hideous stories behind the veil of Kerala's prestigious temple festivals and rituals.
The narrative is filled with saddening visuals of the torture and injuries inflicted on elephants by mahouts and profit-greedy elephant owners and the views shared by many experts, including poet-environmentalist Sugatha Kumari, Elephant Task Force chairman Venkitachalam, Hindu priest Kalidasa Bhattathiripad and so on.
In a daring act, the film questions the brutalities unleashed on the animals in the name of rituals and beliefs and even shows the sad state of the animals in the Kunnathoor Kotta, an elephant sanctuary run by the Guruvayur temple management.
Iyer told Onmanorama that she was hopeful of a change in the attitude of religious heads to avoid elephant parades and related cruelties against the animal in the name of rituals and beliefs.
The screening was followed by a healthy discussion in which film lovers, students and officials from various parts of the country took part, asking questions and offering support to the movement initiated by Iyer through the film.
Addressing audience after the screening, Iyer urged people to stay away from rituals and celebrations that torture elephants. "Each one of us needs to stand up against such cruelties and act on our own," she said.
She said she was planning to arrange screening of the film across schools in Kerala because she felt it is necessary to create awareness on the issue among kids.
"I will discuss the issue with Kerala's education minister Prof. Raveendranath and DGP Loknath Behera and chalk out a plan to move forward. Both of them have been very much supportive," she said.
The movie was earlier screened at the Kerala Assembly. She said Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has offered support to her initiative. However, she said the lobbies involved in captive elephant businesses are strongly opposed to her.
She said a section of lawyers in Kerala have agreed to arrange a screening of the film for the judges in the state.
Iyer is now working on the Malayalam version of the film in a bid to outreach to the local people. The film is substantiated with raw and undercover footage of elephants attacking people and each other under circumstances unbearable for them. It also has personal narratives of mahouts and elephant owners which reveal their ignorance on the behavioral patterns of the wild animal.
After narrating painful accounts of the ordeals of the gentle giants, the film ends on a hopeful note featuring how a captive elephant which was tortured inside in a temple in Maharashtra for six years was finding a new life inside a natural sanatorium in Karnataka.
The audience was so moved by the film that many of them, mostly students, came forward with all support to the filmmaker's ongoing attempts. One girl even offered to help her dub the film in Marathi to take the film to the masses in Maharashtra. Chief wildlife warden of Goa, who was present for the screening, lauded the film and Iyer's initiative.
As many as 156 elephants had died during 2012-14, as per the official data. In 2015 alone, more than 53 elephants succumbed to deadly injuries. The death toll stands at 11 elephants and nine humans in 2016. The crew has gathered 200 hours of footage for the production of the documentary.
'Gods in Shackles', is produced and directed by Iyer, a multiple award winning journalist and film maker from Kerala who is settled in Canada.
The documentary was nominated by the prestigious International Elephant Film Festival at the United Nations General assembly and has won seven international film festival awards, including the Los Angeles Cinefest Award, Hollywood International Independent Documentary Film Festival Award, The IMPACT Docs - Award of Merit, Golden Award at the World Documentary Awards.
