Bettada Jeeva (India, 2011)

Language: Kannada | Director: Sheshadri | Year: 2011

The title is translated in English as “Man of the hills”, but it could have been “The Life on the hills”, because although the film portrays about the human emotions, it equally talks about the life of the people living in the Western Ghats of South India. 

The story is set in pre-independence India. Shivaramu (Suchendra Prasad) is a young freedom fighter, who is propagating Gandhian thoughts is on a run from the law. He loses his way in the woods while travelling, he then with the help of the tribes land at Gopalaiah’ house for a night stay. 

The elderly couple- Goplaiah (Dattatreya) and his wife Sankari (Rameshwari) live in the midst of the forest, along with few people. They have their own farm. Situation arrives when Shivaramu had to stay with them for few days. This gives an opportunity for Shivaramu to know about the couple, their runaway son Subbu, who they believe is in Bombay. He comes to know that Subbu like him (Shivaramu) has left his parents to take part in the freedom struggle. By seeing the emotional sufferings of the elderly couple, who are unaware of the whereabouts of their son, Shivaramu decides to get back to his own family. Sankari also asks Shivaramu to find their son, since he too is travelling to Bombay. Did he find is the climax of the film?

The synopsis of the film made me to watch it, since most of the pre-independence set films are either patriotic or political biography. Very few films touch the human emotions of that period. 

Other touch points in Bettada Jeeva are the life of the people in Western Ghats of Karnataka- Their culture and attitude towards the then on going freedom movements. Gandhiji is almost an outsider to them. The people never care who rules them. The film on its way of pitching the human emotions, also talks about environmental issues of deforestation. But nothing gets preachy.