Kumki Full Movie
Deb Cartelli
The story revolves around a mahout and his trained Kumki elephant, who is used to guide other wild animals to minimize the destruction of properties and fields of nearby villages.[4] Filming took place in various places of Karnataka and Kerala. The film's music is composed by D. Imman, in which his soundtrack was commended by the audience and critics. The cinematography was handled by M. Sukumar and editing was handled by L. V. K. Dass. Kumki was released on 14 December 2012.[5]
The film opened to positive reviews from critics, praising the performances of Prabhu and Menon, the direction, and the film's soundtrack. It was a commercial success at the box office.[6] The film won three awards at the 60th Filmfare Awards South, including Best Supporting Actor for Thambi Ramaiah, Best Music Director for D. Imman, Best Lyricist for Yugabharathi.[7] The film won 7 prizes at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards held in 2017.[8] The film also won two Vijay Awards, three SIIMA Awards and three Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards.
The film starts with an introduction to the main characters: the protagonist Bomman (Vikram Prabhu), his pet elephant Manickam, his uncle Kothali (Thambi Ramaiah), and his sidekick Undiyal (Ashvin Raja). Bomman spends most of his time with Manickam and earns his livelihood by hiring it out for festivals in temples and wedding celebrations. Meanwhile, in a village dominated by old principles, a rogue elephant (Komban) ravages crops and ambushes its people. Frustrated by this and without any help from the forest officers, their leader decides to bring a kumki elephant to tame Komban. Bomman and his crew reach the village as placeholders to stay for a couple of days until the real mahout and kumki elephant arrive. Life begins to change for Bomman when he falls in love with Alli (Lakshmi Menon), the daughter of the village leader. She is at first reluctant keeping in mind the village's principles but she soon starts to fall for Bomman. Life goes on smoothly, until Komban starts randomly attacking the village. On the eve of their departure, Komban attacks Manickam. Komban's actions kill Kothali and Undiyal and injure Bomman. In the ensuing fight between Manickam and Komban, Manickam kills Komban but suffers serious injuries and dies. Bomman then cries out loud, regretting that his love had led to the deaths of his crew and Manickam. Alli's father then recognizes that Alli and Bomman are in love. The film then ends abruptly, leaving Bomman's fate to the viewer's imagination.
Solomon wanted a new face for the role of Bomman, for which over 60 auditions were held. Vikram Prabhu, who participated in the auditions, was selected.[11] Vikram had earlier worked as an assistant director for films like Sarvam (2009) and Aasal (2010).[12]
The film which was earlier titled as Komban, was shot across the forests of Kerala and Karnataka.[13] The film was shot at athirappalli falls and Munnar.[14] Later, some scenes were shot in Kerala in dense jungles as well as at Jog Falls and on the Orissa border.[12][15] For the climax portion, producers bought two-acres of land to shoot a scene where elephants destroy the land.[16] Solomon shot the film mostly during the day, especially in morning and evening time, to create the right feel for the scenes. Solomon also wished to explore his love of nature through Kumki. The elephant, Manickam, was around 12 feet tall.[10]
The soundtrack album and background score is composed by D. Imman, in his third collaboration with Prabhu Solomon after Lee (2007) and Mynaa (2010). The album has seven numbers written by Yugabharathi with three karaoke versions. The soundtrack album was released by Sony Music on 1 August 2012,[18] which coincided with an audio launch event held at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai,[19] where Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Suriya,[20] amongst other celebrities in the film's cast and crew, participated in the function.[21][22] Kamal Haasan unveiled the audio CD and handed the first copy of the album to Rajinikanth and Suriya.[23]
The film's distribution rights were acquired by K. E. Gnanavel Raja, under his banner Studio Green.[24] The film was initially scheduled to release on 13 November 2012, coinciding with Diwali, but due to post-production works and also due to the release of Vijay-starrer Thuppakki and Silambarasan-starrer Podaa Podi,[25] the release was postponed to 14 December 2012.[26] Kumki along with Gautham Vasudev Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham, were scheduled to release on the same day.[27] Both becoming the most anticipated films of the year, because of the success of the soundtrack. On 1 December, the makers confirmed the release date on the said before date.[28][29] Two days before the release of Kumki along with Neethaane En Ponvasantham, the advanced bookings for the first weekend were sold out.[30] The film was dubbed in Telugu as Gajaraju, and was released simultaneously on the same date.[31] Post-release, the makers has shot three climax scenes and planned to change the tragic climax with an alternate positive climax of the film, as the audiences were not happy over the film's ending.[32] However, the climax of the film remained unchanged.[33]
In early 2016, Prabhu Solomon confirmed to the media that he would soon start work on a sequel the film's sequel Kumki 2.[63] This sequel will feature newcomers in lead roles similar to the first part.[64] He then delayed the project to finish his commitments to the Dhanush-starrer, Thodari (2016), while also contemplating potentially remaking Kumki into Hindi.[65][63] Following the disappointing response to Thodari, Prabhu Solomon chose to finish scripting the sequel to Kumki and registered the title Yaanai for a production for Eros International during the final quarter 2016.[66] He went on a recce to Thailand to finalise the script and hunt for locations.[67]
Kumki (Koomkie, Koonki or Kunki; known as Thāppāna in Malayalam) is a term used in India for trained captive Asian elephants used in operations to trap wild elephants, sometimes to rescue or to provide medical treatment to an injured or trapped wild elephant.[1] Kumkis are used for capturing, calming and herding wild elephants or to lead wild elephants away in conflict situations.[2] In such cases the training process aims at preserving some of the wild dominant character in them, so that they can control wild elephants by force if necessary. When wild elephants enter human settlements and kumkis are used to drive them away, sometimes direct physical contact might not be needed since the territorial behaviour is aided by scent and other communication between animals.
In 2017, when the first mission to capture Arikomban, the now infamous rice-raiding tusker of Kerala failed, it was one of the rarest defeats Anamalai Kaleem faced in its nearly four-decade-long career as a Kumki elephant.
It was back in 1972, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department found a six-year-old bull calf, which was separated from his herd in Sathymangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), the infamous abode of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan.
The young jumbo was brought to Kozhikamuthi camp, where it became Anamalai Kaleem, and as its physique was deemed to suit the requirements of a kumki, it underwent training to become a rescue elephant.
The kumki training is a controversial practice, which many animal rights groups argue involves cruelty to tame the elephant. As part of kumki training, elephants are taught to chase away, capture or rescue troublemakers or injured wild animals, including other jumbos.
The male tusker lost contact with its herd when it was just one year old and became an orphan after its mother succumbed to severe wounds in the Chinnakkanal area of the Devikulam forest range in 1987.
The elephant gradually started damaging crops and eating plantains. As the houses then were huts made of bamboo and grass, it could easily grab food with its trunk. But things changed in 2001 when about 301 landless tribals were rehabilitated there.
As the days passed, living peacefully became challenging for the locals. They feared the tusker could easily break into their houses and trample them. The elephant has killed about 10 people and destroyed more than 300 houses in the Chinnakkanal area.
As the Kerala Forest Department attempted to capture Arikkomban on its first mission in 2017, the jumbo managed to escape into the forests. When the government proposed the second mission in March 2023, animal rights activists opposed it. The mission was to capture and tame it to become a kumki elephant at Kodanad Elephant Centre in Ernakulam district.
The activists moved the Kerala High Court, persuading the court to stop the department from carrying out the operation. After hearing from an expert committee formed for this purpose, the court instructed to capture and release the elephant in a location deep inside the forest.
As directed by the court, the Kerala Forest Department tranquillised Arikkomban with the help of Arun Zachariah, a wildlife veterinarian. The rescue team comprised 150 people from the forest, police, health, and motor vehicles department. The tranquillised animal was loaded into a truck with the help of four kumki elephants and sent to the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR).
As the tusker started damaging the property and killed a person in Cumbum, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department became alert and carefully tracked the elephant. With the help of the kumki elephants and the veterinarians, Arikkomban was tranquillised in the Chinna Ovulapuram reserve forest in Theni district on June 5.
Then, after a detailed discussion, the elephant was taken to Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) and released in the Muthukuzhivayal forest above the Upper Kodhayar forest area, which happens to be part of the Agasthiyamalai Biosphere Reserve.
Though Muthukuzhivayal forest is about 20 kilometres from the tea estate, the workers and other people living there fear the rogue elephant, a habitual raider of human habitations. Muthukuzhivayal forest, pristine in nature, is inaccessible and highly undisturbed with plenty of water and elephant feeds such as reeds, bamboo and other edible greenery.
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