Altaghat Rainforest in the Anamalai mountain range teems with wildlife: birds, bees, tigers, bears and elephants. It is also home to Loganathan of the Kadar tribe whose ancestors have walked the forests from time immemorial.
He is the protagonist of the short film, Kadar , which was launched on YouTube today. The film is the brainchild of wildlife travel operator Pravin Shanmughanandam. The film has been scripted and directed by Pankaj Singh of Faraway Originals, which makes films about unsung heroes from across the country.
It all began four years ago, when Pravin surveyed a private coffee estate. “We were looking for a good trail in the rainforests and found this 175-acre coffee estate that the owners had given over to re-foresting. So far, the area had been open only to researchers and scientists,” says Pravin. While they were okay with walks and trails on that land, the owners did not want it to become a stomping ground for marauding tourists.
It was the perfect fit. “The biodiversity here is amazing; the forests are spectacular with their trees, streams and waterfalls. But I also wanted it to be all about the local inhabitants. Then, in 2016, I met Loganathan,” says Pravin, adding that he became his constant companion on his tours. Loganathan became a tour guide as he accompanied Pravin’s groups into the forest and shared with them his exhaustive knowledge about the flora and fauna there.
- Faraway Originals is a collective of Bengaluru-based storytellers, writers, artists and filmmakers who create original films from across India about art and history, sport and movement, the natural world and conservation. They seek incredible tales and craft them into narratives that bring to the fore, unexplored perspectives, unheard voices and unseen expressions, hidden in plain sight.
At nights, sitting around a campfire in the forest, Loganathan would tell Pravin about the animals he shared the forests with and a lot of jungle lore. “His mother, wife, daughter, cousin and his wife and he are the only people looking after the estate. Only the Kadars can live in the leech-infested rainforest,” he says. During one of his trips, Pravin noticed that Loganathan had fitted a new door to his home. “I asked him about it and he said, ‘An elephant did that, so we changed the door.’ Nothing else! I had to prise the details out.”
When Pankaj heard the story of the tusker breaking into Logananthan’s home in the dead of night forcing him to escape into the forest with his family, “we decided it was a story to tell,” he says. “The script is from Loganathan’s point of view; in first person. It recreates what happened that night and what Loganathan made of the incident.”
Pravin says it was not easy convincing Loganathan to agree to the film. “The Kadars do not interact much with city dwellers, and here were some ‘urban people’ who suddenly wanted to make a movie about him,” says Pravin. Filming in the forest was challenging. “We had to trek uphill in the night to check the landscape. It had rained, we were slipping, sliding and falling, with minimal rain gear… there was a lot of hiking and trekking and going across unused trails. It is a completely isolated terrain.”
The film crew consisted of just four members: three from the Faraway Originals and Pravin. “There was no big crew or big lights…We spent a lot of time with Loganathan, listening to him and his mother while we ate together. Only when he warmed up did we start filming. We did it in just one and a half days,” recalls Pankaj.
While the film was about a tusker entering Loganathan’s home, the team had to work out a way to tell the story without an elephant. After all, there was no way they could conjure up a tusker. “Visually, we planned it so that we did not have to show the animal. There are many ways to portray the mood,” says Pankaj. Indeed, the anxiety, fear and suspense are tangible when watching the film. The elephant is always there, just out of the frame.
Pankaj wrote the narrative in English and Pravin narrated it in Tamil. “We decided to go with the local language because it had more impact. There are English sub-titles,” says Pravin.
Kadar releases on YouTube today. “Everybody has a story,” says Pankaj, “only they often do not recognise it as an amazing one. Loganathan’s was one of them.” For Pravin, what stood out was Loganathan’s response to the tusker incident. “This is who I am; this is my life that I share with the creatures of the forest. That night I was scared. As scared and intimidated as I am when I go into town and a bus conductor asks me for my ticket.”
The film can be viewed on https://youtu.be/QAkjJiZmw9w