Down To Earth
The ‘s’ in River taming mantras is superfluous. The documentary centres round a single water taming mantra, the embankment, concentrating largely on its inefficacy in keeping at bay waters and woes alike. Bihar, a state 16 per cent of which remains waterlogged the year round is used as an apt case in point. 

The film-makers have not tried to poeticise a people’s tragedy, but merely captured the fragility of the human endeavour to score over nature. The house with the door ending abruptly mid-air, is a testimony of irreverent waters that disparage the sanctity of the threshold. But the most haunting image of all is the hut, half afloat, thieving waters engulfing it, silently mocking the sombre lock adorning its entrance.