Is “The Jungle Book” losing its originality?

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE –       In the past, we have all seen various adaptations of many popular stories while each adaptation is a unique take, the comparisons are bound to happen.

The latest adaptation of “The Jungle Book” by Andy Serkis-directed “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle,” enjoyed limited screens this week before its official Netflix debut this Friday.

While the film certainly has a similar backdrop to the original script, but the latest adaption is vastly different from the previous ones questioning whether the classic ‘The Jungle Book’ is losing its track?

While the movie opens with the grisly, violent murder of Mowgli’s parents. It throws the young boy into countless kill-or-be-killed scenarios. It happily explores larger themes: the duality of man, the desire to belong, the questionable nobility of tradition, and the nature of family, to name a few.

Here the man-cub is not just dancing around with his wolf brothers but is instead struggling with deep existential questions about where he belongs. Much of the film explores questions like identity and the place where Mowgli should be, the jungle or the village. It’s time for him to leave the jungle and accept fellow humans as his own but as he puts it, he is not a man but neither is he a wolf.

The Jungle Book written by author Rudyard Kipling is a collection of stories for children originally, confuses the target audience in Andy Serkis version. The filmmakers are clearly trying to bring an uncommon maturity to the fantasy film.

Keeping the story aside, the film is beautifully acted, featuring terrific vocal performances from the likes of Christian Bale, Naomie Harris, Eddie Marsan, Tom Hollander, and Serkis himself.

The Hindi dubbed will be done by Abhishek Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, and Kareena Kapoor Khan.