THE JUNGLE BOOK REVIEW: Kipling's timeless classic on screen!

Some tales are timeless, last year’s Cinderella was one of them. This year we get Kipling’s classic retold to us. Not essentially anything new, but the appeal of The Jungle Book makes us curious one more time. The important word here is ‘retold’! Some classics can only be retold, not reinterpreted or restaged, which means absolutely nothing about the story is touched or changed, the original is that perfect.

Writing a review for such a movie is a relief, because you know that there can be no spoilers to give away. Everyone comes to this movie because they already know the story and want to see it one more time. So here we have our dear Mowgli, running through the jungle with his pack, training to be a good wolf, training to be fast enough to join the council. But, there is something about him that is different, he isn’t a wolf after all, but the wolves love him enough to see him as one of them. The alpha of the pack, Akela, keeps watch as Mowgli tries to fit in but invariably stands out, with his tricks. The jungle is quite accepting of the idea that a man cub is growing up amongst them, one guesses that is mostly to do with the reverence they have for Akela, more than the benevolence they have for the kid. But, there is one who has no reverence for Akella, or for anyone for that matter – the most powerful beast of the jungle, Sher Khan the tiger.

It is Sher khan against the wolves who want to protect the child. But, nature is so built that the underdog rarely has any chance in a fight. A mongoose always gets the better of a snake, a cat always catches the mouse, and so the wolves know that if it comes to a tooth and nail fight, they stand little chance against the might of the tiger. So they decide the wise way, until Sher Khan decides that their wise move was really stupid!

The best thing about this Jungle Book retelling is

the screenplay. Taut and swift, it wastes absolutely no time in getting down to the point. There is the obvious advantage that most audiences already know the characters well enough, and so the writers go straight to the central conflict after a few establishing minutes. Voice overs are used at exactly the right places to speed up the narrative and before you even know Sher Khan is chasing Mowgli through a grassland as a herd of wild bores run helter skelter, in one of the most arresting scenes of the film. You begin to think that the movie has gone into a serious tone and it does look so for a while with the dark jungle and a huge snake, but then out of the blue comes the most lovable character of the entire Jungle Book, Baloo. His arrival takes the movie to a fun level that it has not been to before. In fact, the brief period where it is just Mowgli and Baloo going after honey and preparing for ‘hibernation’ is perhaps the best passage of the movie. The lines written for Baloo are absolutely top notch, especially when he terms the ‘Law of the Jungle’ as ‘propaganda’!

We could go on all days about how adorable Baloo is in the movie, in the voice of Bill Murray. It is actually redemption of sorts for bears because they were being hated a lot after the mauling Di Caprio received in The Revenant. But, there are other characters too, like the ever reliable Bagheera, the loving mother in Raksha, the wolf pups and the elephants. You will really enjoy the way Raksha’s expression and voice have gelled together to give her that warmth on screen. Then, there is Neel Sethi who does a top job as Mowgli. But the director must have been careful with the body language. Some gestures and expressions obviously do not belong to the jungle, and are straight out of the city. And, some of the dialogues too could have been better. You get a feeling at times that too much is being said, when the proceedings on screen are obvious. Also, the King Louie episode is not as engaging as we think it might be, partly because the King breaks into a disjointed song in the middle of it. One also wonders how Mowgli is able to talk with most animals without any trouble, while monkeys (technically closest to him in evolutionary terms) can’t talk!

Well, these are just small things. This retelling of Jungle Book does absolute justice to the original

work and our memories of watching it on TV. The screenplay is fantastic, the animation is superlative, the story is timeless. Enjoy the Jungle Book one more time. 'The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf'!!

Genuine retelling of a timeless tale!

3.5/5