Movie review: The Jungle Book, rediscovering The Boy Who Lived for my generation

The Jungle Book is a must-watch.
Movie review: The Jungle Book, rediscovering The Boy Who Lived for my generation
Movie review: The Jungle Book, rediscovering The Boy Who Lived for my generation
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Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Neel Sethi, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito

A few weeks ago, I was on a boat watching crocodiles in the wild in Goa. We sat there, a bunch of tourists, munching on Cheetos and drinking our Pepsi, watching a ten-foot-long, live crocodile eyeing us from the bank with its cold green eyes. Nobody considered the croc to be dangerous. We were safe in our boat and after a few minutes, even the most enthusiastic wildlife watcher in the group got bored of looking at the barely moving reptile and began fiddling with his phone. For a moment, I imagined what it would be like if the crocodile somehow got into the boat. The absolute terror that would strike our hearts when the jungle crashed into our nice little civilized ways.

The Jungle Book in live action isn’t cute. The characters from Rudyard Kipling’s classic walk and breathe onscreen without any dumbing down whatsoever. The film begins with Mowgli (Neel Sethi) running through the forest with a pack of wolves, hotly pursued by Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), the black panther. The four-year-old with me was sure that the film was going to begin on a very bad note with the panther gobbling the boy up. For people like me who grew up in the eighties and nineties, Bagheera is, of course, an old friend.

But even though the story of The Jungle Book is well-known, the movie manages to keep you on tenterhooks with its artful narration and skilled graphics. Whether it is Akela (Giancarlo Esposito), the just leader of the wolf-pack, or the lovable Baloo (Bill Murray) with his reinvented one-liners, or the monstrous King Louie (Christopher Walken), the personality of every character has received the attention that it deserves, with a good dollop of the contemporary to make the experience more enjoyable. And then, there is Shere Khan (Idris Elba). Terrifying, terrible Shere Khan who is every bit as mean and menacing as a villain can be - I suspect Pahlaj Nihalani is still suffering from nightmares - with his sly, scarred face. The narrative gallops forth with never a dull moment in this epic battle between the man cub and the tiger. The background score is intelligent and builds the tension in the story admirably.

The Jungle Book is a must-watch. But can children handle it? Children from the Harry Potter era have grown up on the story of a boy with mysterious parentage, hunted by a dangerous, sly, power-hungry villain who wants nothing but to kill him. Along the way, the boy meets and defeats other dangerous folks with the help of his friends and mentors. And in the end, he stands alone and wins because he accepts who he is. Mowgli is the Boy Who Lived for my generation. I was delighted to introduce my daughter to him. 

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