About Tortoise Under the Earth
| Title: | Tortoise Under the Earth |
|---|---|
| Original Title: | ᱫᱷᱟᱹᱨᱛᱤ ᱞᱚᱛᱟᱨ ᱨᱮ ᱦᱳᱨᱳ |
| Plot: | In a uranium mining area of Jharkhand, India, a Santali couple copes with the loss of their daughter. The grieving couple express themselves largely through song and ritual, blurring the boundaries between personal pain and communal trauma. Tortoise Under The Earth is a poetic elegy to a world that is rapidly disappearing, subsumed by unchecked development and displacement. |
| Cast: | Jagarnath Baskey, Mugli Baskey, |
| Director: | Shishir Jha |
| Editor: | Shishir Jha |
Tortoise Under the Earth
Rohit Vats
DNA
Documents more than displacement, it’s about a new style
I watched emerging filmmaker Shishir Jha’s festival hit Tortoise Under The Earth (Dharti Latar Re Horo) a couple of months ago in Goa. Thanks to other tasks at hand, I willingly gave the film enough time to settle down in my memory, in such a way that I could reminiscence about it, preferably laden with nostalgia. I mean, what better way can be there to acknowledge a talented young filmmaker! Not even watching the trailer of the film to remind myself of the film’s exact plot was a conscious decision, something that could impact the original perspective I might have formed the first time. If certain visuals and sounds stay with me for all these weeks, rather months, then it’s probably going to have a similar effect on others as well.