Sherni Movie Review - Coexistence and Politics

When the newly appointed DOF Vidya asks the constable about the reason for his confident guess on the culprit behind the attack on a cattle, he explains the positioning of the field and forest such that any animal, which has to cross the forest has to first cross the field, which creates a danger to the life of both the animal and human. The next scene depicts the so-called topography visually through an aerial shot, something for which Amit V Masurkar deserves an extra credit.

Just like the director's previous work Newton, which revolved around a government officer's struggle to conduct an election in a Naxal affected area of Chattisgarh, Sherni revolves around a forest department officer's resolve to protect a tiger, which already has created havoc in the villages surrounded by forest. 

A cattle got attacked by a tiger while grazing and its information was passed to Vidya Vincent, the new DOF. After a series of investigations,  the officials circle the culprit  as T12, a tigress which is on the run through forests and fields. But after a series of human casualties, the job becomes a headache for Vidya, where the trouble comes in the form of humans depicting animalistic tendencies of power politics and patriarchy. Even the  self boasting animal hunter Pintu Bhaiyya, for whom hunting is a lust, indirectly acts as a valuable pawn to the earlier referenced power politics. 

The director and the writer tries to showcase the irresponsible utilization of Compulsory Afforestation Fund Act where teak is planted on a grazing ground of nearby villagers, which forces them to send their cattles to forest, thereby leading to tigress attacks. The human animal conflict and the act of  monetizing it  by the candidates into votes for upcoming elections and the brief media buffoonery similar to what we have seen  in 2010's Peepli live is something we often see and hear, yet remain ignorant. 

Vidya Balan as an officer doing her job and stuck in a bureaucratic and political web has been the best performance by the lead in recent times. The supporting cast, especially Vijay Raaz, where he responds to his superior on the importance of duty with the images of  great leaders behind him felt like a beautiful ode. 

Other than the director and the screenwriter, the first applause should be for the cinematographer Rakesh Haridas, capturing the green beauty of Madhya Pradesh's forests, especially in the aerial shots and the mining scenes. A bit of continuity error during the editing process could be ignored, as it doesn't affect the story flow. 

The pro conservation agenda and the mantra of Co existence through a beautiful dialogue connecting the tigress, forest, rain and humans is the need of the hour at a time of depleting forest layers and rising man animal conflict. Maybe it's the greed for money masking behind the unsustainable development agenda,  the same greed which had given birth to climate change and global warming. Anyhow, the movie could be considered as a tribute to all the genuine conservationists, who believe in coexistence of species, rather than dominance. 

Watch Sherni online on Amazon Prime