Ajoba being collared by biologist Vidya Athreya
(right). Photo: Special Arrangement
“To know about an animal, you sometimes have to become one,” the character of wildlife biologist Purva Rao states in the film Ajoba,
which released in theaters on Friday. The film, that talks about
human-leopard conflict: an issue which has trespassed from the rural to
the urban areas, makes a pertinent point of the need to understand
animal behaviour.
The film starts begins with a leopard being trapped inside a well in
Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. What follows is the leopard's 120-km
journey back to its own habitat over 29 days, closely watched by Dr. Rao
and her team, who have placed a chip in its body before releasing it
into the wild. Directed by 28 year-old Sujay Dahake, the film is
inspired by the work of Vidya Athreya, with Urmila Matondkar playing Dr.
Rao in her debut Marathi performance. Ajoba: meaning grandfather was the name Dr. Athreya's team gave the aging leopard.
Speaking to The Hindu on Sunday, Dr. Athreya said, “It was
important to show that animals are not a nuisance, and the film has done
that perfectly. Usually, the electronic media sensationalises the
issue, and does not go beyond the ‘man vs wild’ conversation.”
The idea of the film came to Mr. Dahake when he heard of another leopard
trapped in Junnar near Pune. It was then that he met Dr. Athreya, and
her animated description of Ajoba's journey that got him excited. “I
thought that the story had drama, and had to be told to the masses,”
Dahake told The Hindu. “I had found a hero in Ajoba. Here, nature
trying to tell you that it will not interfere with your life unless you
do so first,” the director said about the protagonist.
The journey and the process of following it was not easy for Dr.
Athreya, as it is not for Dr. Rao on screen. “Forest officials are
helpful, but they have political limitations. I had to work with that,”
she stated. “The characters in the film are an amalgamation of people
who have helped me and tracked Ajoba's journey,” she said.
Another conversation that the film manages to strike is that of the role
of women in unconventional careers, such as that of Dr. Rao's. She is
seen living in rural areas for days together, negotiating with male
forest officials and riding pillion with her assistants, all without the
tag of 'being a woman'. “I am a woman. But that has nothing to do with
how I work. If you're focussed, people will respect you for what you
are,” Dr. Athreya stated. For Mr. Dahake, that was a conscious decision
to portray the character in this way. “She smokes a beedi, and drinks
whiskey. She is not apologetic about the fact that she's not married. It
is what she has chosen for herself,” he states.
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