Enchanting Bird Rescue Doc All That Breathes Finds Lyrical New Delhi Ties

All That Breathes, a documentary by Shaunak Sen about two brothers—Muhammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad—in New Delhi who say they have saved more than 20,000 kites (an Indian bird of prey) over the last two decades, is enchanting. There have been other stories about the amateur medic duo, along with their assistant Salik Rehman, but none as lyrical as this documentary.

The brothers, former bodybuilders who grew up in the Chawri Bazaar area of Old Delhi, started treating injured black kites in 1997 out of necessity. These scavenger birds were often prey to another kind of kite—the paper ones commonly flown as a lazy weekend pastime or to mark festive occasions. The string, called manja, used in the paper kites is usually coated with glass particles, in order to cut and capture another person’s kite. However, these razor-sharp strings can be fatal to birds, slashing their wings and sending them careening from the skies, especially during the later summer and fall months when kite-flying is at its peak.

On finding one such injured kite, the brothers took the bird to the Charity Birds Hospital, Delhi’s largest and oldest bird hospital, located on the premises of the Sri Digamber Jain Red Temple, run by people of the Jain faith. Ahimsa, the practice of non-violence and compassion towards all life, forms the core of Jainism. And so, the hospital told Saud and Shehzad that they could not treat the meat-eating bird. The brothers had to abandon it.

As a result, the brothers ended up treating injured birds that they continued to find, with some help from other local vets and based on their own interest and knowledge. They carry out their bird rehabilitation operation, called Wildlife Rescue, out of the basement of their family’s liquid soap dispenser manufacturing office. Their family business substantially funds their personal bird rescue mission, although some grants have now helped the brothers establish a small aviary on the rooftop.

The documentary uses the brothers and their relationship with the carrion birds as metaphors for the state of the environmental and political climate of India’s capital, forming a subtle subtext to the main account. Keeping its lens focused on the bickering brothers, their affable assistant and the seemingly endless cardboard cartons containing injured kites that stack up in the brother’s basement, All That Breathes allows images and conversations about the stifling pollution as well as the mass protests that erupted in New Delhi in 2020—as citizens took to the streets to challenge the Citizenship Amendment Act that was criticized for going against India’s secular constitution—to seep into the storytelling.

The way Sen and his team approach the idea of Delhi’s disastrous atmospheric conditions is breathtaking. Every now and again, the narrative following the brothers breaks to zoom into creatures of other species. The interstitial scenes of other animals, often captured from a ground-eye view, are magical. The cinematography by Benjamin Bernhard is spectacular and is edited poetically by Charlotte Munch Bengtsen—especially one where a man drives a disco-lit chariot through an empty street, enveloped by a smoggy haze. It’s an amazing sight, until you come to another scene where Saud tells his son that he won’t be able to play outside until the air quality index isn’t flashing red.

For people who remember the violence of the anti-CAA protests in Delhi and how devastating those clashes with police and other groups were, the faint news reports and quiet conversations between the brothers and their wives are jarring. Another scene, where the assistant Rehman talks to his mother on the phone about being careful while traveling to pick up some injured birds and then plays with a baby squirrel, is particularly moving.

There are quibbles. For the most part, the conversations between the brothers, as well as their assistant, feel stilted. What are meant to be informal exchanges take on a performative role, especially if you understand Hindi. The voiceovers by the brothers, where they narrate poetic thoughts or ruminations, work far better. Also, the documentary doesn’t explicitly spell out why so many kites—as well as other birds such as owls—get injured. There’s a reference to a season, which likely refers to the periods that paper kite-flying becomes more common. But the viewer is left guessing as to the specific malaise, which gives the documentary a mysterious air that can sometimes feel disingenuous, a bit of sleight of hand in the craft of doc-making.

Yet, the brothers’ relentless passion overrides the awkward tone that carries through All That Breathes. I’m thinking of one scene in particular, where Saud and Rehman decide to rescue an injured kite on the other side of a river. Shehzad, always grumpy, declines to join. However, when it seems that things might go south, he strips down and enters the cold, murky waters. The trio trudges back, laughing. As much as this amateur trio is rehabilitating the birds, they are—in a sense—being rescued themselves.

Director: Shaunak Sen
Release Date: October 21, 2022

Aparita Bhandari is an arts and life reporter in Toronto. Her areas of interest and expertise lie in the intersections of gender, culture and ethnicity. She is the producer and co-host of the Hindi language podcast, KhabardaarPodcast.com. You can find her on Twitter. Along with Bollywood, Toblerone bars are one of her guilty pleasures.