This documentary short just won an Academy Award at this year’s Oscars. I saw it earlier this year on Netflix. While accepting her award, Kartiki Gonsalves, the director of the film, said, “I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world.”

The film is essentially a heartwarming love story between people and pachyderms. Filmed in the stunning wildlife forests of Tamil Nadu, watching The Elephant Whisperers is a meditative experience.

The film takes the audience to the Theppakadu Elephant Camp inside one of the largest undisturbed spaces for the elephants in Asia. The area is also inhabited by the Kattunayan tribal people and together with forest rangers, they care for abandoned elephants.

The film follows two tribal characters, Bomman and Bellie, as they care for a baby elephant, Raghu, who was left orphaned and abandoned after his mother was electrocuted. The forest department had given up on them but through the love shown by Bomman and Bellie, Raghu started to come back to life.

Among our recommendations for this week are a heartwarming love story with pachyderms, a documentary on Bollywood’s famous Chopra family and a mini-series about Baywatch’s most famous star

This is such a heartwarming, yet visually stunning documentary to watch and definitely worth your time. These words spoken by Bellie have stayed with me since I saw the film, “I have experienced many losses in my life. My ex-husband was killed by a tiger. This left me feeling scared of the forests. I get scared when I see a tiger. [But] I am a tribal woman, and our people come from the heart of the forest.”

There is so much to unpack here. This is a series you can watch with the family. In fact, you must. Produced by Uday Chopra, The Romantics is essentially a series about the creation and legacy of Yash Raj Films and essentially his own family.

His father, Yash Chopra, the founder of Yash Raj Films, was one of the most successful directors of his time, and created one of the biggest Bollywood film production houses in India.

The Romantics primarily takes us through a journey of two generations of the Chopra family, Yash Raj and his elder brother as a part of the older generation, followed by Uday Chopra and his elder brother — the brilliant yet incredibly shy and reclusive Aditya Chopra.

Aditya is the current head of the Chopra family and of Yash Raj films as well. He also directed the iconic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) which has been running in cinemas to packed audiences for a whopping 28 years so far. Aditiya almost never shows his face in public and he never gave interviews — until now.

The series features many, many trips down memory lane. You will hear from some of the most iconic actors and actresses in Bollywood about their interactions and experiences with the family, and how their lives were changed. This includes the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Rishi Kapoor, Kajol and Ranveer Singh among others.

You get a behind-the-scenes look at iconic vintage productions such as Chandni, Silsila and Lamhe among others. Find out whom Hrithik Roshan had dance offs with as a child. And you also get Aditiya’s brutal honesty regarding his little brother’s lack of appeal as a hero for the public, something he is currently being lauded for.

But watch it with a pinch of salt and never forget that The Romantics is an exercise in PR by the family after all.

As someone who grew up watching Pamela Anderson on Baywatch, and followed whatever tidbits of her life were revealed through second-hand American lifestyle magazines bought from Sunday Bazaar, I was very excited to see this documentary feature. 

With her long blonde hair, curvy physique and seemingly innocent face, she epitomised what the perfect feminine beauty looked like — but strictly through the male gaze. She posed for Playboy magazine early on in her career, and was known as somewhat of a serial dater. 

She eventually settled down with Tommy Lee Bass, the co-founder and longtime drummer of the rock outfit Mötley Crüe. But theirs was a drama-filled, whirlwind romance. The biggest scandal to erupt out of it was their leaked sex tape, which propelled Anderson to infamy and, according to the model and actress, “ended my [acting] career.”

Around the same time Netflix’s Pamela was due to be released, a miniseries based on her tumultuous relationship with Tommy Lee, Pam & Tommy, came out. This series, based on a very difficult time in Anderson’s life, was not made with her consent or personal insight and she made that known. I believe this is why Pamela: A Love Story is important. We get to hear from the artist in her own words.

And boy, does she reveal a lot. It was refreshingly honest and insightful to watch. Anderson is currently going through a bit of a relaunch/rebranding of sorts. She’s definitely struck a chord with Gen Z that has taken a liking to her. And with this Netflix documentary film, along with her book that came out this year, she is also reclaiming her own story.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 19th, 2023