An Eco-Semiotic Analysis of Kantara: Myth, Ritual, and Ecological Narratives in Indian Cinema

Abstract

This article presents an eco-semiotic analysis of Rishab Shetty’s 2022 film Kantara, arguing that it functions as a sophisticated eco-semiotic text that articulates a subaltern ecological consciousness. The film employs the indigenous Tulu ritual of Bhoota Kola, its associated mythology, and the sacred forest setting as a complex system of signs. This system challenges the dominant, state-sanctioned paradigm of environmental management by asserting the primacy of an ancestral covenant between the human and non-human world. Through a close reading of the film's narrative and visual language, this paper deconstructs how Kantara semiotically constructs the forest as a sentient entity, the Daiva (divine spirit) as its voice, and the ritual as the medium for ecological justice. The analysis situates Kantara within the broader contexts of Indian eco-cinema and the global discourse on "Fourth Cinema," which champions indigenous storytelling. It further examines the film's engagement with and ultimate subversion of the hyper-masculine hero archetype prevalent in South Indian cinema. The paper concludes that Kantara offers a powerful counter-narrative to secular environmentalism, one grounded in the sacred, the ancestral, and a cosmology that transcends anthropocentric logic.