Taira Malaney’s Turtle Walker is an absolute treat. From the gorgeous visuals to the immensely charming and captivating Satish Bhaskar. A well-made and passionate documentary.
In the late 1970s, Satish Bhaskar embarked on an epic journey along India’s coastline and the spectacular Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where he uncovered the vital nesting beaches of sea turtles. During his death-defying quest, he unravels mysteries surrounding these enigmatic ocean creatures – and sets out to save them from extinction. After a devastating tsunami struck in 2004, Bhaskar grapples with a pressing question: What happens to sea turtles when their nesting beaches disappear?
Satish Bhaskar, what a lad. A man in his 70s who still cares so much that you can only feel inspired by how driven he is to throw his life into keeping sea turtles alive in the wild. Director Taira Malaney decides to take a road less travelled and not have the majority of her film consist of talking heads and archive footage (difficult to find archive footage when the majority of Bhaskar’s experiences on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were solitary ones.) We have a more narrative-driven approach to Turtle Walker, incorporating continual reenactments as we listen to Bhaskar explain the moments we see.
A documentary that utilises reenactments to help visually tell its story has to teeter along a very fine line. Go too over the top with it, and it looks horribly staged; however, when done right, as we see here in the Turtle Walker, it can really propel the effectiveness of certain moments to a terrific effect. Equally, thanks to the subject and the environment in which the story is set, we get a documentary filled with colours and striking imagery.
With Bhaskar, you could listen to him for hours and hours as he recounts stories of what he has done and what he has experienced. It is a grand thing to listen to someone who has found their passion in life and hear them talk about it. The way he talks to the camera has us soften tremendously towards him, and at every turn, we feel as if we know him as a person; his infectious love and passion for life in all its forms lift us.
While, of course, Turtle Walker is about Bhaskar, you can’t help but want to know a bit more about the animals that he so vehemently adores, the animals he will up and leave his family for long periods of time for. Yet, other than some basic information, we learn little about these wonderful animals. However, with the way Malaney presents her film, you let it slide, as Bhaskar’s tale is so captivating.
Turtle Walker is a film with an inspirational subject. Malaney takes some risks with her film, and wonderfully, they pay off, ending up as a fantastic and faithful tribute to a unique man.
★★★ 1/2
Support Us
I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…
Patreon
You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here! We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.
Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.
Social Media
You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!
