Review | 'Sherni': The story of two tigresses. Slow burn, but impactful

Actor Vidya Balan (centre) in 'Sherni' (screen shot). The film released on Amazon Prime Video on June 18, 2021.

I wonder if in the future our kids will laugh at us for singing ‘Sher se main kahoon tum ko chhod ke mujhe kha jaaye’*. Why? Because there’d be no tigers left for them to understand the unbridled power and beauty of the animal. Because we’re constantly fighting for space with these magnificent creatures.

Before I get sidetracked, let me first register a wish: that Amazon Prime Video employ someone who has seen the film to write its synopsis. The word ‘jaded’ is used so incorrectly, you want to scream in frustration.

Read more: Vidya Balan: 'I was never comfortable with creepy-crawlies'

Vidya Balan is a forest officer recently posted to an office where everyone seems to operate in ‘what’s in it for me’ mode. Mr Bansal (Brijendra Kala, hamming it like only he can) is her superior. He is obviously well settled in his leather chair, and chooses to misquote shayari than reprimand politically connected contractors.

‘The water hole has not been filled’ is the first crisis Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) faces. When animals do not get water to drink or are not able to hunt in the forests, they will enter human habitat. But the contractor is busy with election work and Mr Bansal is literally greasing the political machinery with some massage oils for the politician’s knees.

The colour of politics is yellow and pink. And each side wants to be seen as the saviour of the people. It’s like the Forest Guard explains, ‘There is forest, then fields, then forest and then fields, and then comes the National Reserve. Both the tiger and the people are in danger each time they come face to face as the tiger migrates.’

Amit Masurkar’s Sherni may not be as slick and fun as Newton, but he manages to help build the frustration very well. Which means you need a lot of patience to sit through the routine of the Forest Guard which feels as if a movie fell inside a documentary. It is as they say, 'You will look for the tiger a hundred times and spot it once. But the tiger has seen you 99 times'... I guess waiting for the tigress to show up on cameras planted everywhere on the path and trying to anticipate its path and motive is routine and frustrating.

What amazed me in the process is how well trained the Forest Guard is. I expected the usual filmy ‘Cameras don’t work’ schtick, but what pleasure to see people use computers to access footage from the cameras. Suddenly made me a believer in the competence of the people in the field.

When we see Zoology professor Hasan Noorani (Vijay Raz) offer to collect the DNA samples of the tiger from a kill (a villager who took his cattle to graze in the jungle), I am sure I looked just as sceptical as Vidya Balan does. But you realise how valuable he’s going to prove to be very soon.

Loved Sharat Saxena as trigger happy Pintu Bhaiyya who offers to kill the tiger at every chance he gets. We all know at least one gun-enthusiast who will claim what Pintu Bhaiyya does: he can look a tiger in the eye and read his intent.

But what does a ‘hunter’ do when Vidya frustrates his offer of help? Go to the political leader running for elections, of course. The politicians in these forest areas know two ways to deal with a problem like a wandering tigress. One, let’s kill the wildlife and two, let’s burn the forest. The villagers just want the problem gone, and they cannot stop venturing into the forest even when they know it’s risky. Forest Officers like Saiprasad (Gopal Dutt in a single but significant scene) also know that the best way out from such a frustrating job posting is to earn revenue and get a promotion posting out of the ‘field’.

If the job is frustrating, her personal life is also not too happy. Vidya has a husband who seems to be sort of lying to her about his job (Mukul Chaddha is so good in the film). Thankfully it’s the people she works with that make her stay worthwhile. They follow the tigress, and know why they cannot let information go out to the likes of Pintu Bhaiyya and his supporters.

It’s a whole lot of tracking the tigress by the rivulets and trampling through the jungles for the film to be utterly riveting. But there are moments of respite when the hunter pretends to know tiger poop and the Forest Guard calls his bluff. Also one learns about how tigers will stick to the pathways inside the forest because they don’t like getting spider webs on their face.

Suddenly I find myself liking the tigress and want to save it. But I also wish that the politicians would do something more worthwhile than go seek the tiger, and spend drunken campfire nights and equally drunk luncheons in the jungle. The surprise that Vidya’s husband springs on her in the middle of all the troubles in the jungle posting makes a brilliant comparison. There are actually two tigresses in the jungle. One is labeled T12, and the other caged by gold necklaces gifted by mother-in-law, her selfish superiors (sigh, Neeraj Kabi, he’s showing up as too many villains now), the politics and even her husband. Vidya Balan shines in moments when she has something to say, but the corrupted system is the hero of the film.

Yes, I am grateful that there are still those who will save the cubs. Hat tip to all those villagers, friends of the forest and the people guarding our green cover.

*('I'll tell the tiger to leave you alone and eat me instead', lines from a song from Bobby starring Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor.)