Overview
Safed Haathi is an Indian Hindi film made by Tapan Sinha in 1978. It won National Film Award for Best Children's Film in 1978. It got a ‘Special Jury Award’ in the Sixth Competitive Festival "The Child In Our Time" 1983 in Mifed, Milan, Italy. It also participated in several prestigious, International Film Festivals held at Berlin, Moscow, Tashkent, Cannes, Adelaide, Sofia, Cairo, Gijon, etc. where it received high acclaim for its contemporary theme, preservation of flora and fauna and emphasis on qualities of chivalry, adventure and integrity of character in children.
Plot
Sibu lives with his uncle, aunt and sister Rani in a small village. While his uncle is indifferent to him, his aunt is very cruel. Mynah, a talking bird, is his best friend.
One evening his aunt asks him to take a sari to her mother who lives in another village, which is a route through dense forests. As Sibu is crossing the forest, it gets dark and he decides to rest for a while and falls asleep. He wakes up startled by the terrible roar of a ferocious tiger who is about to attack him when a huge white elephant emerges and rescues Shibu from certain death. The tiger is frightened and runs away and the magnificent white elephant, whom Shibu names "Airawat" and he become friends.
Next morning Sibu safely reaches the other village and hands over the sari to his aunt's mother. She gives him some money in return to buy himself some treats. With that money Shibu buys some bananas and after returning to the forest, feeds his new friend, Airawat, who is very pleased and gives him a precious gold coin. Sibu returns home with the coin and tells Rani about his new friend and shows her the gold coin. She forbids Shibu to tell anyone, especially their greedy aunt and uncle and asks him to keep the entire incident a secret. Eventually the gold coin is found by Shibu's aunt and uncle. They become extra sweet to him and very cleverly trace out the origin of the gold coin to the White Elephant by following Shibu when he returns to the forest to meet Airawat.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).