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Haathi Mere Saathi Review: Rana Daggubati's human-animal conflict drama is shoddy to say the least
Haathi Mere Saathi is a gimmick worthy attempt with VFX, predictable storyline and an underwhelming cast. Read Haathi Mere Saathi Review.
Cast: Rana Daggubati, Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar
Director: Prabhu Solomon
Streaming Platform: Eros Now
Rating: 1/5
Just a few months ago, Vidya Balan's Sherni made its way to streaming platforms. The film explored the human-animal conflict and gave the audiences some well-written characters and performances to enjoy. Director Prabhu Solomon is charting a similar territory with Haathi Mere Saathi but is on a completely different path and miles away.
Starring Rana Daggubati, Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Anant Mahadevan among others, the film is set amidst the jungles of Chhattisgarh and features Rana as Bandev -- popularly known as the Forest Man of India. The film establishes Bandev as the caretaker of these jungles whose being revolves around taking care of the wildlife.
As you would expect, the protected jungle area falls to urbanisation with a politician set to create a 500 acre township. What follows are some passionate environment protestors, villagers and media covering the event as encroachment begins slowly. However, the film, which is originally made in Tamil and Telugu, will put you off with its Hindi dubbing. That also makes it difficult to enter this fictitious world and even be a part of it.
The makers do not offer anything new with this human-animal conflict story as urbanisation is at the center of it and it ends there. There are various other elements like politics, corrupt government officials and fellow animal lovers that are so over-the-top, they almost make it cringe-worthy.
Apart from Rana Daggubati and Anant Mahadevan, no one really stands out. If you are a fan of Rana and are watching the film only for him, be ready to be underwhelmed. The screenplay keeps jumping from one track to another, there's zero novelty and even the subtitles at one point are incorrect. While the character says three months, subtitle suggests three years!
At 2 hours 40 minutes, Haathi Mere Saathi also leans heavily on VFX which get quite unrealistic at one point. To say the least, the film's predictable story, cringe worthy performances and shoddy screenplay, deviates the spotlight from what should have been the film's heart -- it's elephants! Rana's decent performance and the deep, lush green yet dark forests are the only respite in this film. Rest, nothing else really saves this human-animal conflict.
