Volume VI Special Issue VI September 2026

Name of Author : Abinovathmaja B M

Title of the paper : Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge: Cultural Memory and Sacred Ecology in Kantara

Abstract: Folklore in movies is portrayed with distinctive indigenous traits that preserve cultural richness and heritage. Rishab Shettys Kantara is a cinematic brilliance that reimagines indigenous folklore into a modern narrative that celebrates cultural memory, ecological consciousness, and resistance to hegemonic models of change. It is situated in the socio cultural settings of coastal Karnataka. The film explores local ritual traditions, oral belief systems, and sacred ecological tales, particularly through the practice of Bhoota Kola. It creates a close association between regional and political dynamics. Folklore is carefully selected and presented to preserve the authentic value they carry within. The paper argues that Kantara helps to preserve cultural memory. By reconstituting ritual, myth, and community based knowledge, traditional tales are given a special elevation in the standards of understanding. In doing so, the film openly questions the marginalisation of indigenous outlooks within a dominant modern discourse. Especially those associated with linear progress, commodified land use, and institutional authority. The storyline foregrounds the tension between local custodianship of land and extractive development, thereby positioning ecological degradation and cultural erasure as interconnected consequences of modernisation. With the help of a close reading of the film, this study engages with frameworks of cultural memory, indigenous studies, and ecocriticism to demonstrate how Kantara mediates between the past and the present. It portrays that the film does not simply romanticise the indigenous folklore, but rearticulates it as a critical language through which questions of identity, sovereignty, and environmental ethics are negotiated. The paper concludes that Kantara exemplifies how modern cinema can serve as a medium for recovering marginalised knowledge systems while simultaneously interrogating the social costs of development. In this regard, the film stands as a significant cultural text that illuminates the enduring relevance of indigenous epistemologies in contemporary India.

Keywords : Folklore, Cultural Memory, Indigenous Identity, Sacred Ecology, Modernity.

DOI :

Page Number : 322-326