Cast: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken
Star-Cast(Hindi): Priyanka Chopra, Irrfan Khan and Nana Patekar
Director: Jon Favreau
Music Director: John Debney
Producer: Brigham Taylor
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Someplace in downtown Los Angeles, there is a deep, dark jungle where a boy called Mowgli lives among animals. The animals themselves speak in menacing tones of Idris Elba, hold you under their spell in the sultry voice of Scarlett Johansson and sing exactly like Bill Murray.
Probably they got coaching from director Jon Favreau on how to emote for the camera, or maybe they are just natural.
The film is great but the CGI is even greater. Neel Sethi’s Mowgli may be the only living,
breathing entity in this live action-CGI stew but you would consider Bagheera, Baloo, Shere
Khan and party equally real by the time the show’s over.Favreau and his team of tech wizards don’t just give you CGI for the heck of it, they make it an integral part of the storytelling.
This film would never have been the same without the present day technology and it can only be compared with, say, Avatar. The film is an eye-popping spectacle where the jungle breathes and animals emote with their eyes. The wizardry is overwhelmingly successful in the portrayal of the animals. They are so real – from the way they talk to their loping, sinuous walk to even their eyes – that you eventually forget that some graphic artist just made them up.
The story of the film mostly is true to Rudyard Kipling’s timeless tale – abandoned ‘man-cub’ Mowgli was found by the wise panther Bagheera years ago. He brought the child to a pack of wolves which is headed by Akela and mother wolf Raksha brings him up with her other cubs.
Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken are stupendous in their roles and we would have loved to see more of them, especially Johansson’s hypnotic Kaa.