Indian filmmaker and photographer Kartiki Gonsalves grew up very close to the Mudumulai Reserve in Tamil Nadu where her remarkable short documentary The Elephant Whisperers was made. The film, backed by Netflix and on the Oscar trail, is about a couple, Bomman and Belli, who adopt an abandoned baby elephant, Raghu, nurse him back to health and form a very deep bond with him in the process.
Gonsalves was driving from her home to the city where she was then living when she saw Bomman walking by with Raghu, then three months old. “He was a tiny little calf, waddling around,” she remembers. “They were on their way for their bath [in the river] and I think Bomman noticed the curiosity that I had…he beckoned me to come [over].”
That was how she first encountered the little elephant. ”I had never seen a calf that young…I had always seen elephants when they were much larger. He was just so vulnerable at that stage of his life. I noticed the connection that Bomman had with Raghu. That was just super special because he filled the place of a mother or father or friend. It was beautiful just to see all the trust between them.”
Over the years, Gonsalves was to develop strong ties with Raghu herself. She was struck by how like a human the little elephant was. If she stuck out her tongue at him, he would stick out his tongue at her. “He has a sense of humour too. There was one day when we were standing together. We were looking in the same direction. He kicked me with his back leg but then he looked off the other way…I was wondering what had happened. Then he did it again. Elephants really have a sense of humour. They can exhibit joy, grief, pain.”
Early on, though, when she was first spending time with Bomman [who is also a priest] and Belli, she wasn’t thinking about making a documentary. She was “just watching” the elephant grow up while steeping herself in the life of the couple tending him. Some of the footage she shot on her phone and GoPro eventually made it into the documentary.
“It took five years to make the film. I just wanted to show the world this beautiful bond between man and nature – the sacred bond that also Indians share with elephants,” Gonsalves underlines.
Raghu isn’t a human and can’t live with Bomman and Belli forever. Eventually, a deeply emotional moment of separation comes. For the couple, it’s like losing a child. At the same time, they accept that it is best for Raghu’s well-being and development to move on.
“I was really heartbroken when I knew Raghu was being taken away because I had developed such strong emotions for this calf. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life,” Gonsalves says of her own feelings.
As they grow older, elephant calves need to learn from their peers. Raghu was becoming increasingly stubborn as he moved into adolescence. Bomman and Belli couldn’t provide him with the discipline he needed. “Even in human families, you tend to see when parents love their child so much, they just let the child be because there is unconditional love there – but sometimes that stops them from teaching them what is right and wrong.”
Raghu is healthy and happy. “And he is a lot more well behaved now…I know for Bomman and Belli, it’s heartbreaking but for the welfare of the elephant, it is really important.”
Gonsalves believes that The Elephant Whisperers “has something in it for everyone.” She has had enthusiastic responses to the documentary both from very young kids and old folk. “There’s something in it for every kind of person. There’s a message in it for people who’ve lost their husbands; for people whose kids have gone off to school; for adopted kids…I want people to understand the special bond that we share with other living beings.”
Although this is her first movie, Gonsalves has worked as a wildlife photographer and camera woman. “I’ve always loved animals and interacted with them since I was a child,” she says. “But this was my first and only experience of dealing with such a vulnerable elephant calf.”
When she first met Raghu, he barely came up to her knees. Now, he is taller than her. “At this stage, I’ve taken an ethical stand to not go very close to him. I understand he is a wild animal now. There is a distance you’ve got to keep. I don’t want to set a bad example for people that it’s OK to just go up to an elephant and feed them.”
This was the director’s first film. She pays tribute to her executive producer, Doug Blush, an award-winning director, producer, editor, cinematographer who is co-owner of Los Angeles-based MadPix Films (and was involved in the Oscar-winning 20 Feet From Stardom).
She also acknowledges the “stunning” music written by Sven Faulconer.
Gonsalves has a long interest in natural history. Her mother, Priscilla Gonsalves who has a PHD in East European History from Stanford University, and father Timothy Gonsalves, a computer Scientist and photographer with a PHD from Stanford University, are both passionate about nature. Her grandmother Claire Hopkins was an amateur naturalist who guided school children through local nature reserves.
Having dealt with elephants, she is taking a different tack in her next documentary. The subject this time round is wild orcas, which will be made off the northern coast of British Columbia.
