Nilavanti

A supernatural thriller film

On the fog-shrouded night of her grandmother’s funeral in the Sunderbans, seventeen-year-old Arshi unearths Nilavanti, an ancient manuscript that grants her the eerie gift of understanding the haunted whispers of animals. When a ruthless developer unleashes armed mercenaries to strip the fragile mangroves for uranium, Arshi must brave ghostly creeks and shifting tides to unite forest creatures and local fishermen in a desperate bid to save the world’s largest tidal labyrinth from industrial doom.

AI generated image_Only for representation purpose

BRIEF TAKE

Seventeen-year-old Arshi returns to Gaganbari in Sunderbans for her grandmother’s last rites, drawn back to the estate by a childhood memory of dawn birdsong that once felt like a secret language only she could almost understand. But the rice paddies, muddy shores and winding creeks she loved are now ringed by factories and development projects. Seeking solace from her family’s bitter quarrels, Arshi retreats to her grandmother’s dusty room—and discovers an old Bengali manuscript titled Nilavanti, its preface promising the power to speak with animals.

That very night, under drifting mangrove mist, she wakes to two parrots chattering in flawless Bengali. At dawn, a startled deer whispers a warning. Piecing together her grandmother’s tales of Nilavanti—a nature-loving demigoddess in Lord Kubera’s army—Arshi realizes the manuscript’s magic is real. Online forums confirm that fragments of the legend circulate, but no one has ever owned the complete text—until now.

When Arshi posts her discovery, offers pour in, including one from Mr. Sarkar, a ruthless developer under pressure to find minerals—perhaps uranium—beneath the Sunderbans. Convinced Nilavanti’s gift will guide him to untapped riches, he sends a massive armed force after Arshi, hunting her through flooded channels and moonlit groves. But as frightened macaques scout ahead, local fishermen rally to her side, forming a makeshift alliance against Sarkar’s men.

As the chase intensifies, Arshi must embrace her grandmother’s legacy and master the ancient mantras that let her commune with every creature—from crabs burrowing in the mud to kingfishers perched in the canopy. This is more than a personal quest: it’s a battle for the world’s largest and most fragile mangrove forest, a living testament to nature’s power in the face of industrial greed. Guided by Nilavanti’s wisdom, Arshi stands at a crossroads: will she save Gaganbari’s tidal heart from being destroyed in the name of “progress,” or watch her homeland drown forever under encroaching industry?

CREATOR'S TAKE

Bengal has always been a tapestry of lush landscapes, storied rivers and ancient mysticism—a place where poets and reformers have long tangled their dreams with the whispering wilds. In Nilavanti, we follow the hunt for a lost grimoire whose very pages pulse with legends of a demigoddess named Nilavanti, an enlightened scholar who learned to speak the language of beasts and bind humanity back into nature’s fragile balance. Online sleuths and fringe forums claim fragments still survive; as our protagonists piece together the book’s secrets, they awaken forces both wondrous and terrible.

At its heart, Nilavanti is a supernatural thriller—and a parable for our age. Through the scholar’s journey from academic curiosity to living legend, we confront the “demons” of global warming: the mother of storms, the wildfire spirits, the vanishing creatures. When the boundary between folklore and reality shatters, Bengal itself becomes both sanctuary and battleground. This is a genre rooted in eternal human fears—of the unknown, of nature unbound, of our own undoing—and when woven with haunting atmosphere and a timely environmental allegory, Nilavanti promises to thrill audiences while echoing a deeper call for coexistence.