The Jengaburu Curse review: Intimate thriller compellingly brings environmental crises into mainstream

In its opening moments, The Jengaburu Curse narrates a legend of the fictional Bondria community of Odisha: millions of years ago, a “Dragon King’’ ruled the Earth. The mythical ruler went to sleep beneath an area that is now the village of Jengaburu (a fictional word that means “red hill”), and from his head flows the Hatidhara river that sustains life in the village and its surrounding forest and wildlife. The sleeping Dragon King must never be woken, or the world will be destroyed.  

In his first foray into the over-the-top (OTT) medium, filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda lays out a similar warning on what human greed does to the environment. While the setting of The Jengaburu Curse, Panda’s seven-episode series on OTT platform Sonyliv, does not exist on India’s map, the abuse and exploitation that this region and its inhabitants face at the hands of ruthless corporates and politicians would hold true in several mine-bearing areas in the country. 

The synopsis of The Jengaburu Curse, which Panda labels the country’s first “cli-fi”  (climate-fiction) series, describes it as the story of London-based Priyamvada Das (played by Faria Abdullah), who is compelled to return to her home state Odisha to look for her father, a professor, who has gone missing. As soon as she lands in Bhubaneswar, she senses tension in the air. Instead of help and compassion from the police, she receives resistance and mockery. The eyes of people around her suggest her father’s disappearance is linked to something ominous that no one is willing to discuss. 

The tension rises further in Das’ native Jengaburu village, a home she has never known, where the people of her Bondria tribe are living amid exploitation and suppression. The supposed resting spot of the Dragon King beneath the forest has untapped reserves of critical minerals. A mining company has taken over the village with support from corrupt police officers and local authorities and pushed out the indigenous people who had protected the land religiously for generations.

Actor Nasser in a scene from The Jengaburu Curse. Photo: SonyLiv

The Bondria people are subjected to a series of horrors: the river water turns red and toxic, their houses are burnt or their loved ones go missing. A mysterious disease is killing people, mostly children, living along the polluted river. The miners too are seen vomiting blood and collapsing in the middle of work. A doctor (played by Makarand Deshpande) suspects the polluted air or the poisoned water to be the cause, but cannot investigate because the heavily guarded mining site ensures the affected people do not leave the area. 

The sustained tension of unspoken, unaddressed abuse of the tribal people is accentuated by heart-wrenching scenes of killings of innocent mine workers and village residents who attempt to reveal the truth. There are also bold, desperate attacks on authorities and mine protectors by Bondria tribals, who are hiding in the depths of the forest in fear and have been labelled “naxals”.

As the story progresses, Panda cleverly mixes the traits of observation and information seen in a documentary with the pace of a hyper-real drama or a taut thriller. The episodes are packed with so much action that if one dares to blink, one is likely to miss a major plot point. The anguish of the Bondria people is depicted with utmost care, showing environmental degradation as a personal tragedy, especially for the sentinels of nature. The haunting, brilliantly scored soundtrack amplifies their seething resentment. 

At appropriate intervals, the narrative shifts from the village to an intercontinental power battle that is at the root of the crisis. The constant ebb and flow of power keeps hope alive in an otherwise doomed situation. There are small triumphs of the tribal people, an honest civil servant, a whistleblower and the unrelenting protagonist. Gender too is handled in a well-balanced manner, with wonderfully written women characters. While there is no in-your-face trope of women empowerment, the impact of the crisis on every gender is shown with nuance. 

The series also is not obtrusively self-aware or sermonising, much like Panda’s previous works based on the environment, such as Kadvi Hawa (2017) and Kalira Atita (2020). In both these works, he takes serious climate-related subjects out of news headlines and research papers, and shows them through an intimate lens. For instance, in Kalira Atita, which is based on real events, the protagonist makes a lonely journey in search for his village that has been engulfed by the sea, and is nearly driven mad in the process. 

One place where The Jengaburu Curse slightly falters is near the end of the last episode, which feels rushed with the narration becoming a tad unrealistic. But it reels in the viewer again with its cliffhanger ending, hinting at the possibility of a sequel. Overall, the series does well to show that climate change can feature in mainstream fictional content, and paves the way for more such storytelling.

Cast: Faria Abdullah, Nasser, Sudev Nair, Makarand Deshpande, Deipak Sampat, Indraneel 

Bhattacharya, Hitesh Yogesh Dave, Shri Kant, R Badree, Sukumar Tudu, Maninee De, Pavitra Sarkar

Director: Nila Madhab Panda

Platform: SonyLIV

The story was first published in the 1-15 September, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth.

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