REVIEW: AAKHET by Jyothi Venkatesh

Producer- Ashutosh Pathak

Director- Ravi Buleiy

Star Cast- Ashutosh Pathak, Narottam Bain,Tanima Bhattacharya, Prince Niranjan and Rajnikant Singh

Genre- Social

OTT platform- Hungama .com

Rating- *** (Three stars)

Jyothi Venkatesh

A well made topical tale

Babu Nepal Singh (42 years) spends his holidays alone away from his urban lifestyle every year, without fail.

He doesn’t take his wife along with, nobody knows the reason and his OFFICE colleagues don’t have much enthusiasm to go with him to pass away their holidays.

Babu Nepal Singh’s regret in life is that he has never hunted a tiger whereas his royal ancestors had killed many a tiger.

When he is advised to visit Betla Forest, Palamu, Jharkhand during the Durga Puja vacation he wants to shoot a tiger.

His guide Murshed lives in the village near Betla forest. Babu Nepal Singh goes for tiger expedition in the forest of Betla with his ancestral gun as his holiday begins.

The director Ravi Buleiy who is a journalist turned director

In his monotonous routine one of Babu Nepal Singh’s regrets in life is that he has never hunted a tiger whereas his royal ancestors had boasted of having killed many tigers .What happens forms the crux of the film!

While Ashutosh Pathak lives his role with effortless ease as Nepal Singh, who sets out to go oil an expedition of wild life, Tanima Bhattacharya scores with her inhibition-less performance as the widow of a mentally deranged brother of Rafeeq Murshed (Prince Niranjan) who flirts with mot only Rafeeq Murshed  but also Nepal Singh as Julfiya.

Prince Niranjan is impeccable as Rafeeq Murshed who takes him on a hunt while Rajnikant Singh is passable as Jalal.

The director Ravi Buleiy who is a journalist turned director drives home the message that man today is actually responsible for the slaughter of the tiger population.

In India alone hunting, poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced the population of tigers

In India alone hunting, poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced the population of tigers from over 100,000 in the 1900’s to less than 4,000 in the 1970’s and only 2967 tigers are left in India.

Of the original nine subspecies of tigers all over the world, three have become extinct in the last 80 years; an average of one every 20 years.

It has been predicted our coming generations could see tigers only in books and films. Today, four of the remaining subspecies of tigers are considered endangered by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), while two of the subspecies are considered critically endangered.

The film sets out to deal with the real story of humans and tigers in modern India

The total number of all the wild populations of the six remaining subspecies of tigers (Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, Siberian, South China, and Sumatran) is estimated to be between 3,000–3,600 tigers.

The film sets out to deal with the real story of humans and tigers in modern India.

 Everyone takes a jungle safari in the greed that they will be able to see the tiger. But it is sad that only 5-10 per cent of them are lucky to see the tiger.

However, the surge of tourists keeps coming to see the tiger. Guards who take safaris sometimes show the tiger’s claws and sometimes its feces. Only with these things is the tiger’s craze kept alive, and life goes on.

The film has been released on the OTT platform Hungama.com

The film is the debut venture as a writer-director of journalist turned director Ravi Buleiy, who has set out to tackle a highly inflammable plot of deceit and practical decision.

Though the music of the film by Vijay Kapoor makes you watch the film which has been released on the OTT platform Hungama.com, the only minus point of the film is that its length is too shot at just 75 minutes.

To sum up, Ravi Buleit’s directorial debut Aakhet is a well made tale that does not deserve to be missed at any cost.

Some more photos from the movie: