The trailer of Haathi Mere Saathi would have pacified Rajesh Khanna. This Haathi Mere Saathi has nothing to do with Mr Khanna’s 1971 blockbuster of the same title. This one has lots of elephants in it but fails to address the elephant in the room: why has this film been made? Going by the trailer it looks like an awful mistake . So why compound the mistake by releasing what is clearly a dud sanctioned in a moment of insanity?If I was the producer I would quickly throw the footage into the sea and pretend it never happened.
Haathi Mere Saathi has Rana Daggubatti running around with a wild look in his eyes as if he’s just seen the Chinese releasing the Covid virus. He plays some kind of an animal conservationist battling to save elephants from evil capitalists.Anand Mahadevan is the greedy entrepreneur who builds a big wall blocking the elephants from the jungle.Someone should block the elephants from queuing up too see this film. They would feel insult is being added to injury.
And poor Sheeba Chadha! That extraordinary actress gets to say just one word. “Silence!” .
But no one is listening.There is a whole lot of noise and screechy sermons on how human plunderers are destroying the elephants’ natural habitat.
But the tone is way too shrill to convey the message . The CGs are extremely poor in the trailer. We can only hope and pray that everything gets better in the actual film. So far,what we see is disastrous . Daggubatti monopolizes the footage . The voice that’s dubbed for him in Hindi doesn’t suit him. Ditto Zoya Hassan running around the jungle trying to save the elephants and trying to save poor Pulkit Samrat who looks lost in the jungle.Anyone would, after running from dawn to tusk.
But who will save the audience from this hysterical tripe about the plundering tribe? If there was a chance of a handful of audience actually braving the Covid to see this shrieking film, the trailer kills it. This film should be referred to the SPCA. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to the Audience.