It was during my graduation when I read the book ಬೆಟ್ಟದ ಜೀವ (Bettada Jeeva) for the first time. The book is written by the eminent writer, thinker Dr K Shivaram Karanth.. This wonderful novel depicts the life of people living in the Western Ghats. Recently, P.Sheshadri renowned filmmaker and director, made a the movie based on this novel. Today I had a chance to see this film. The director did a justice to each every character in this movie.
The promo of the movie “Bettada Jeeva” -Courtesy Youtube
The movie takes you to the pre-independence time. An aged couple Gopalaiah (Dattanna) and Shankari (Rameshwari Verma) in a village near Western Ghats. They own a agriculture land and that is the only basis of their livelihood. They have a son who has been missing for a long time.Despite of all these problems, the couple were living in great valour. One day a young freedom fighter Shivaramayya (Suchendra Prasad) visits to take refuge in their house. Though his intension is take a day refuge, he likes the way couple treats him. Gopalaiah narrates how he has converted the thick forest into an agricultural land without disturbing the surrounding environment. It is inspiring to know that the couple despite being worried about their lost son and being lonely in the forest, have never lost interest in life.
No wonder the movie earned National Award for the Best Environmental Film this year. Every characters is perfectly fits in the movie. Daththathreya and Rameshwari Varma have done their best. The background scores and music is given by V Manohar and matches with all sequence of the movie. Gopalakrishna Pai’s dialogues adds life to the characters, The local language(Tulu) can be heard in between. The locale of filming is Kujugodu village near Kukke Subrahamanya. Falling in the edge of Western Ghats, it served as perfect location for this movie.
If you are environmentally conscious person, you definitely like the movie. The movies serves as inspiration to people who make conscious effort to save our ecological assets. It also teaches how we can lead our life without disturbing the ecological balance