A root awakening

In a misty hamlet in the Western Ghats, stories of trees, humans and gods seep into each other and the landscape, as a National Award-winning short zooms into a dying way of life

- Natasha Rego

In the mist that drapes the Western Ghats, stories emerge from the trees. Only those who truly listen will hear them. These are stories of gods forced to take refuge under trees. Of the first man, emerging from a local pond.

The stories seep into each other, as they are retold in the short film Murmurs of the Jungle. We see some of the speakers in fleeting glimpses; they rarely face the camera. What often takes up the screen is a deep forest, majestic and draped in mist.

Directed by Sohil Vaidya, the 20-minute film won the National Award for Best Documentary in October. In 2022, it became the first Indian work to win the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Murmurs... is a unique sort of film.

It is spellbinding but does not seek to dramatise. It moves slowly, embracing silences and stillness. Seconds go by as a single giant tree emerges from the mist.

There is no artificial light; no zooms or pans. There is no plot. No music. Only snatches of the everyday, captured in stunning cinema verité by cinematographer Digvijay Thorat. The soundscape is carefully crafted to mirror the drifting voices of an evening spent by the edge of a village (in a striking effort by Pradyumna Chaware).

The viewer is never told who is speaking, or offered context. There are ancient tales, being passed on as they always have been, in abstract, in good faith, in an effort to guide the tribe.