Delhi Safari

About the film

Delhi Safari (also known as Jungle Safari) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language computer-animated musical comedy film written and directed by Nikkhil Advani. The film traces the journey of five animals from Mumbai to Delhi as they struggle against an oppressive regime. It has been produced by Krayon Pictures (a Pune-based 3D animation studio). Based on a story and concept by Advani, the film's Hindi-language version features the voices of Govinda, Akshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani and Urmila Matondkar. The screenplay of the film is written by Girish Dhamija and Suresh Nair. The music of the film is composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, while the lyrics are penned by Sameer. It is India's first stereoscopic 3D animation feature film. The film released in India on 19 October 2012. At the 60th National Film Awards, it won the National Film Award for Best Animated Film. The English-language dubbed version of the film has voices by Tom Kenny, Carlos Alazraqui, Jason Alexander, Cary Elwes, Tara Strong, Christopher Lloyd, Jane Lynch, Vanessa Williams and Brad Garrett. The international sales of the film is being handled by Fantastic Films International. The film was released in the United States on 7 December 2012.

Plot

The film starts with Yuvraj (or 'Yuvi', for short) saying that he lost his father, Sultan, in the morning but doesn't want to lose his home at any cost. The film carries a flashback of the morning with Yuvi and Sultan playing in the forest and Sultan teaching self defense to Yuvi while his mother, Begum, enters. The two mock her for her overly caring attitude towards her son, which gets her angry, and she leaves. Soon, Begum forgives Sultan and Yuvraj. However, while coming back, a whole pack of bulldozers come from nowhere and proceed to demolish the surrounding jungle. Begum manages to escape, but Yuvi and Sultan are trapped. The two land at a site in the forest where they see all the trees missing. In a bid to save Yuvi, Sultan catches Yuvi in his mouth and tosses him to Begum. However, he himself is killed by a human wielding a shotgun, making the whole forest a large enemy of the humans. A talk happens with attendants of all the animals in the area. Many believe that leaving their homes is the only way to survive; however, Bajrangi, a monkey, says that he would beat out the wits of those men with his so-called "vanarsena" - Marela and Bharela, but Bagga the bear advises him to talk to humans, and Bajrangi asks whether there is anyone who knows the language of humans. A white bird, seemingly a pigeon, Hawa Hawaai pipes up, saying he knows someone who knows both animal and h…

After this incident, Alex pretends to have lost his voice. The animals consult a doctor who prescribes some ayurvedic medicines to recover Alex's voice, claiming that he has hypertension, stress, and high blood pressure. Bajrangi wholeheartedly does the hard work, sometimes getting injured. One day, he discovers that Alex was just pretending and chases him, inadvertently hitting a beehive. All the animals run with bees chasing them. A thrilling experience of trains follows after Bajrangi tells Alex how guilty he feels of thinking to kill him. Alex also realizes how selfish he was and decides to help the animals. Begum tells that no one is going to Delhi after listening to a tiger's story of how he only survived death at a human's hands by being a coward and forsaking his old ways; thankfully, following a pep talk and seeing Sultan's spirit and Yuvi, who inspires them, Begum changes her mind and, with renewed hope, proceeds to Delhi. They finally reach Delhi and tell their message through Alex to the Prime Minister of the country that they want peace between humans and animals and how Yuvi inspired all of them to go to Delhi despite all the incidents. In the last scene, it is shown the jungle is saved courtesy of a shared land act (with the area being called the "Sanjay Gandhi National Park-Borivali") and all are happy and settled. The film ends with all animals settled in the j…

Soundtrack

The title track was among shortlisted 75 songs which were contender for nominations in the Original Song category for the 85th Academy Awards.

Key details