Heralds of the Monsoon / Mungarina Ette
Meera Krishnamurthy / Animation / India / Kannada / 09:04 / 2025
In this ecological whodunit, a peaceful dawn in the BR Hills in the Western Ghats is broken by the discovery of a dead elephant. A wise old Maththi Tree (Crocodile bark tree) and a visiting Sitte (Blue tiger butterfly) sift through the clues together to uncover the truth.
In a world where indigenous knowledge and sensibilities are often sidelined, the film foregrounds the Soliga community’s worldview and traditional ecological knowledge. Represented by the Maththi tree, this perspective is expressed through drawings, time-lapse videos of the landscape, and the language and songs of the Soliga elders. The Sitte, symbolising modern ecological science, expresses its knowledge through stop-motion animation of scientific objects in a laboratory. Through these contrasting visual styles, the film honours both knowledge systems and highlights the urgent need for collaboration to fight climate change and its repercussions for planetary health.
Cast & Crew:
Director: Meera Krishnamurthy
Writer: Mahesha J, Meera Krishnamurthy, Samira Agnihotri, Vinay K KumarCast: Shikari Kethegowda, Samira Agnihotri
DoP, Editor: Meera Krishnamurthy
Music: Soliga Community, Sitte Haduke(Introduction song), Shikari Siddegowda, Kaarana Haduke(Honeybee song), Shikari Kethegowda
Kagga(Credits song)
Shikari Siddegowda, Shikari Kethegowda, MR Madegowda, Chikanna, Mahesha J
Director’s Bio
Meera Krishnamurthy is an animation filmmaker from Bangalore, Karnataka, with a focus on mixed-media stop-motion animation. She has directed and animated narrative shorts and non-fiction films. Her films have screened at festivals such as Animafest Zagreb, Animela Mumbai, and Sci560, among others. Her work explores the real and the imagined through the use of found objects, archives, and frame-by-frame drawings. She teaches experimental animation as a visiting faculty member at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. In 2023, she was the coordinator in a project implemented by the India Foundation for the Arts with the SL Bhatia History of Medicine Museum, where the outcome of the project, a film, is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
