Kaadu or The Jungle is a 1952 Indian-American aventure film directed by William Berke. Mr. T. R. Sundaram (The Modern Theatres Ltd) & William Berke Production. It stars Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero, Marie Windsor and M.N. Nambiar in lead roles. The film was the first science fiction film in India. Kaadu was released on 1 August 1952.[1][2]
Plot
Princess Sati returns home to India, as regent for her father, at the request of her council of ministers. They inform her that multiple villages have been destroyed by stampeding elephants. Her friend Rama Singh was tasked with stopping the attacks. He hired famous hunter Steve Bentley who took 10 hunters with him into the jungle and only he returned. When questioned by Sita, Bentley says that he discovered that the stampedes were caused by mammoths. Singh feels guilty for hiring Bentley as one of the 10 hunters killed was his young brother.
After another raid Sita decides that she and Singh will find the elephants and stop the stampedes. Bentley wants to join them to save his reputation, and takes along some hand-grenades as he thinks they will be more effective than just the guns of the platoon of soldiers Sita is taking. Sita's young servant Babu also tags along. At the village Bentley notices the food is untouched and theorizes that the elephants are stampeding through fear, not hunger.
They follow the elephants trail into the jungle, followed by Chandrakaul, a villager who resents the progressive policies of Sita and her father and is determined to kill Sita. One night a bear is let into Bentley's tent. But Bentley has swapped with Sita's Aunt Samira, who is attacked. Bentley then finds a scorpion in the same tent and suspects Singh is responsible. Samira returns home and begs Sita to go with her but she refuses.
They cross a ravine by a log bridge. When they are attacked by the mammoths they make for the bridge but Chandrakaul has pushed it into the ravine. Singh shoots Chandrakaul, the others take refuge in the nearby hills. They shoot and throw grenades at the mammoths but this has little effect. Babu's monkey arms a grenade which rolls towards Sita. Bentley dives on the grenade, which explodes bringing down the mountain Singh and Sita drag Bentley under an overhang as the landslide apparently kills the mammoths and a few of the soldiers. Before Bentley dies he says he was going to leave without telling Singh about his brother.
Writing in Allmovie, author and critic Hal Erickson described the film as "lots of lovely scenery and fascinating glimpses of Indian wildlife, but not much in the way of plot".[3]
