Genre: Documentary
Duration: 1 hours, 25 min
Director: Luc Jacquet
Voice for the cast(Penguins): Amitabh Bachchan
Year: 2005(Unfortunately it hit my eyes way too late i.e. 2008, that too on star world, a week back)
A heart-warming story of love from the coldest place on earth. The film narrated by Amitabh Bachchan(masters own voice with a complete feel and with an impeccable aura created around the listener / viewer), captures the incredible journey of the Emperor Penguins as they march under the most impossible conditions to find their mates. Braving icy winds, freezing temperatures and starvation through a journey that could pan hundreds of miles across a frozen continent, the film is a striking story of survival. It makes one remember the cycle of Karma and millions of Yoni’s that a living form goes through to finally achieve a privilege of existing as a human. Something we all, fail to understand at large. Believe me people, after viewing this movie, one would surely thank god to what he / she is in the form of a human and would dare do no ill, to ever be born as this helpless and innocent penguin ever again.
Every winter an incredible love story plays out in the coldest, darkest, windiest continent on the earth. The Emperor Penguins emerge from the sea and walk, in a single file, to their breeding ground, which is 70 miles away and mate. The female delivers one large egg, which the male then gathers into the folds of his abdomen and holds. He stands for two months without food and water in howling gales and temperatures which dip to 50 below zero while the female trudges back to the sea. She then returns and incredibly enough, finds her mate and the chick that she has never seen before. The entire experience can send shivers up your spine and would make you realize what it takes for these beings in their fight for survival and how fortunate we are as humans and we still crave for what we aren’t having, than thank god for all that we have been bestowed and blessed with. We humans, in our journey of life fail to identify and differentiate our living with those much inferior to us, for whom affording a morsel for a day feels like sufficing a long fought hunger battle.
A few not-to-miss-for-anything aspects of the film:-
a. ** The march of the emporer penguins for hundreds of miles and the beautiful aspect of seeing them opting for their respective mates and their eternal bonding towards each other as a couple leading to a scope of an evolution of a baby penguin. The heart-gripping scenario of the pain the parent penguins go through, by way of braving the ice cold chilling winds(believe me, the look of itself can give one goose bums), the introduction of a new life in the form of an egg in their lives, their protection and security mechanism to keep the eggs warm and safe between their two legs and walking on their heels and then the tale of departure of the mother penguin in search of food back for hundreds of miles which includes transfer the egg safely to the father(not much transfer time is spared since the egg might dry and crack up, max 15-20 seconds), since the mother loses half her weight during the delivery cycle.
b. The part where most of the females die during the walk and tummy slide journey for food hunt back into the water hundreds of miles away and the ones who make it, how they search for an opening in the ice to not wait to dive into the water and just grasp any fish that comes as food and also their attempt to dodge the attack by predators who in turn wait to see them as their food in winter and the baby dying in turn inside the egg itself, if the mother fails to save herself from the predator.
c. The father not eating again for almost 2 months(time taken for the mother to get back) and in case the baby breaks out, the love and care of the father to protect the baby from the wind and in turn ruminating and transfering food from his beak into the baby’s mouth, despite of not eating for 2 months, but yet keeping the food as a reserve, just in case, for such an emergency, else the baby dies. The soul tearing tale of the baby dying in case it slips from the fathers safe and warm enclosure owing to fathers attempt to protect his own self from the strong chilling ice storm and the shift and adjust process and his pain for the loss, etc.
d. The time when mother returns and searches for her mate by particualr decibel and vocal response mode and her first witness of her baby, and the entire feelings that follow as a parent. Also, the scene where the child is lucky enough to see his mother and father together for just once in his entire lifetime as the father now has to return back to the sea for food etc.
e. The baby’s growth and the learning process to defend itself from its predators both land and airborne, without any shelter nor support from the elder penguins and their solo journey back to the sea as their parents leave them on their own to venture and explore this new world in their own ways and practices, including their first swim on their own too.
A stirring, eye-opening, educational experience and a mind blowing saga bringing forth an incredible true account of the quest to bring new life into the world. The photography and cinematography, which shows the penguins hunting underwater, sliding on the ice, and even what definitely looks like kissing, is far beyond being just incredible and fantabulous. Hats off to the crew, who have braved to capture all these rare instances which actually forms an integral part of the penguin’s chores, but rare for the human eye. At one point the camera even zooms inside the mouth of a penguin as it regurgitates food for its young.
Believe me, after viewing a heart-tearing incident like those shown in the documentary, I would never ever dare or try to keep my sinning to as minimum as possible, so I could never ever have to face the wrath of mother nature and god alike, to land up being punished as a living form which survives on mercy than rights and will.