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Shanti 983920202022

Shanti (originally known as The Girl) is a minor character in Disney's 1967 animated feature film, The Jungle Book, and the tritagonist of its 2003 sequel. She is a little girl from the Man Village and known for her lovely singing voice and beautiful eyes. She is Mowgli's best friend, love interest and later girlfriend. When Mowgli first sees Shanti, he becomes so smitten by her beauty that he decides to leave the jungle in favor of living amongst humans in the village.

Background[]

Development[]

When the creative crew couldn't devise a way to convince Mowgli to go to the Man Village after spending the entire film avoiding it, Walt Disney looked for inspirations in the endings to both volumes of The Jungle Book and saw that Mowgli did eventually fall in love with a girl from a village and served as one of the reasons why Mowgli decided to stay with his own kind forever. Then Walt suggested having a girl lure Mowgli to the village and the idea stuck.

Personality[]

Shanti is best described as a sweet, brainy, rational, flirty, and hard-working young girl, who lives an organized life and has great respect for rules, which she considers to be the pillars of society and essential to a peaceful and prosperous life. She has a very obvious crush on Mowgli (a feeling he reciprocates) and finds him charming, despite disapproving of his occasional rebelliousness. For a long time, Shanti suffered from agrizoophobia (fear of wild animals) and could not bear the thought of all the potential dangers that might be in the jungle, preferring to stay in a safe environment at all times instead. Despite this apparent faint-hearted nature, Shanti is very courageous deep inside but never found the right motivation to nurture her potential until Mowgli entered her life. That time came when she forced herself out of her comfort zone and entered the jungle to save Mowgli, whom she believed was kidnapped.

Shanti would soon confront her deepest fear when she was hypnotized by Kaa. After Ranjan saved her from the snake, Shanti shows considerably fewer symptoms of her agrizoophobia, suggesting that her encounter with Kaa may have worked on her like exposure therapy. She also gradually shows more confidence in the jungle, such as focusing more on finding Mowgli instead of maintaining vigilance and finding the courage to defend herself, Mowgli, and Ranjan when Baloo "attacked" them, rather than panicking like she did the night before. After the skirmish with Shere Khan, Shanti was finally purged of her agrizoophobia for good.

Despite Shanti's initial fear of wild animals, she displayed no desire to harm them. This is shown when she told Ranjan to leave Kaa alone, despite knowing he tried to eat her moments before. This also shows that Shanti is a forgiving person even to those who have wronged her, as demonstrated by her reaction to the prank Mowgli and Ranjan played on her. After being pushed into the village river and left soaking wet, Shanti scolded Mowgli for the cruel mischief but held no grudge against him, showcasing her maturity. However, when she found out that Mowgli tried to have Baloo scare her away in case she found him, she was heartbroken and found it difficult to forgive the boy to the point where she refused to listen to Mowgli's attempts to explain himself.

Shanti and Mowgli have different opinions on the jungle, usually leading to friendly or sometimes serious arguments. In many ways, Shanti's mindset is the opposite of Mowgli's. While Mowgli is rebellious, wild, naïve, and carefree, Shanti is compliant, civilized, mature, and responsible. Despite that, Mowgli has had a rather positive influence on Shanti and vice versa. Mowgli has inspired Shanti to become braver and not to grow up too fast while Shanti has inspired Mowgli to embrace responsibility and work ethics. The two learning from each other proved to be a key factor in developing their relationship.

Despite Shanti's serious nature, she is far from being devoid of child-like traits and often displays her playful side. Especially around Mowgli, who is capable of charming her into loosening up and letting out her fun-loving side, and occasionally she enjoys flirting with him. Being flirtatious is one of her most iconic traits. In fact, there are some instances in which her flirty demeanor borders on seductive, such as the day she met Mowgli. Upon meeting Mowgli, Shanti found the boy to be mysterious and lured him to the village so she could get to know him. When seeing his reluctance, she noticed how the man-cub gazed into her eyes. She used this to her advantage by half-closing her eyes, looking at the boy in a seductive manner, followed by a playful blink. After that day, Shanti's beautiful eyes became a recurring element in her relationship with Mowgli. Whenever Mowgli shows Shanti a good time, she usually opens her more kittenish side as she shows her appreciation and gratitude by letting the boy look into her eyes followed by batting her eyelashes, knowing how special her eyes are to him. Despite her flirtatious attitude, Shanti tends to deny her true feelings for Mowgli when she is around other people, fearing it would make her a subject of mockery, despite the fact that her family, Mowgli's family and apparently all the village children are supportive of them.

As noted before, Shanti is very intelligent. Although living in a rural village restricts her from formal education, she is very shrewd and perceptive. She was able to use those traits to lure Mowgli into the village, using her feminine charms after noticing how dazzled he was by her beauty. While looking for Mowgli in the jungle, Shanti was able to determine the man-cub's proximity by analyzing a curly-shaped mango peel that had been recently peeled and was taught to Mowgli by her.

Even though there is no relation, Shanti treats Mowgli's adoptive brother Ranjan as if he were her own, most likely because of her mother's and Messua's close friendship. She takes some of her time to teach Ranjan how to behave and stay safe and tries to convince him that she's a better role model than Mowgli.

Like Mowgli, Shanti is also very popular among the children of the Man Village, who admire her for her beauty, kindness and amicability. They even occasionally encourage her to take a break from her chores to participate in Mowgli's entertaining activities.

Physical appearance[]

Shanti is a preteen, slender, and beautiful girl with brown skin, brown eyes, long sleek black hair, black eyebrows, red bindi on her forehead, and gold hoop earrings.

In The Jungle Book, Shanti wore a pink strapless dress with a red waist belt, and her hair was tied into pigtails by pink bows, and gold earrings.

In The Jungle Book 2, her appearance was updated. This time historically accurate to how Indian girls at her age commonly dressed in the late 19th century. She retains her gold earrings, and is still barefoot but wears an indigo lehenga skirt made from cotton, a cream-yellow choli that exposes her midriff, and her hair has a conventional Indian style, braided in a ponytail.

Film Appearances[]

The Jungle Book[]

Shanti makes her brief appearance and plays a minor role as an unnamed beautiful peasant girl near the end of The Jungle Book. On the way to the man village, Mowgli spots a creature he has never seen before: a human girl. Mowgli requests a better look, and while Baloo unsuccessfully attempts to stop him, Bagheera gleefully encourages him on. Shanti stops by a river near the village entrance to collect water in her jug. Before doing so, she takes a moment to fantasize about owning her own home and family as the dazzled Mowgli looks on. She then spots Mowgli's reflection in the water and looks up at him as he looks into her eyes. Mowgli falls off the branch of the tree he was looking down at her from and into the river, where he is easily and instantly noticed by the young maiden.

Curious about the mysterious newcomer and instantly infatuated and smitten with him, Shanti tries to politely convince him to come with her to the village, only to be met with reluctance and timid-ness. Not wanting to force him to come, Shanti fills her jug with water and heads back to the village until she notices Mowgli is following her. Hoping to lead him into the village, she pretends to accidentally drop the jug. Mowgli refills the jug and offers it to her, only to receive flirting and charming signals from the girl as she offers him to come with her to the village. Mowgli falls for her trick and follows her. At the village entrance, Mowgli hesitates and looks back at his animal guardians across the river with uncertainty. As Shanti stops by the gate to see if Mowgli is coming, she briefly winks at him, and the man-cub looks into her beautiful flirtatious and romantic eyes and becomes infatuated and smitten with her. Unable to resist his humanity, Mowgli accompanies Shanti to the village and begins a new life.

The Jungle Book 2[]

Shanti makes her biggest appearance in The Jungle Book 2, serving as the tritagonist of The Jungle Book 2, taking place two years after The Jungle Book. Since the end of the original film, Shanti has developed a close friendship and sisterly/romantic love with Mowgli and has been tasked with guiding him through the work hours, allowing the two to interact and bond on a daily basis. At the beginning of the film, Mowgli tells the story of his life in the jungle to his new foster family, Shanti and her mother in the form of a shadow puppet show. Despite being entertained, Shanti expresses a small degree of skepticism when Mowgli states that his closest friends were a panther and a bear. Although Ranjan accidentally ruins the show, the audience laugh it off. Mowgli wonders how he will be able to finish the story but Ranjan thinks it is unnecessary as the audience already knows the ending as he reminds everyone how Mowgli fell for Shanti's eyes and followed her into the village. Shanti is quick to deny this but Mowgli gleefully recalls the day they first met, leading to the two exchanging flirtatious remarks. Ranjan's father, aware of their feelings for each other, tells Shanti that she has nothing to be embarrassed about and that he is grateful to her for bringing Mowgli to their lives. As Shanti and her mother are about to go home, Shanti thanks Mowgli for the fun evening by blinking her eyes at him, knowing the boy has a soft spot for her lovely eyes, and bids him goodnight. Mowgli mischievously plays on her fears by warning her about Shere Khan lurking around, making her uneasy at first but quickly brushes it off by debunking the probability of such things happening. Once she is out of earshot, Mowgli and Ranjan plan to pull a prank on the girl the next morning.

Morning comes and the boys notice Shanti humming "My Own Home" as she heads to the river and follow her. Once again, Mowgli plays on Shanti's fears by warning her of the possibility of Shere Khan lurking around and once the girl lets her guard down, Ranjan emerges from the bushes and scares her, causing her to fall into the river, and the boys laugh at the now-soaking wet Shanti. Enraged, she declares the boys to be horrible for doing it, heads back to the village to dry off and takes Ranjan with her after deeming Mowgli a bad influence on him. Ranjan questions Shanti's fear of the jungle but her only reply is that it is dangerous. Her answer confuses Ranjan as it contradicts what Mowgli has told him about the jungle. Shanti warns him not to believe everything Mowgli tells him, suspecting he may have exaggerated his experience in the jungle. Knowing she has a crush on Mowgli, Ranjan is surprised to hear her doubts about him. Shanti admits she does like Mowgli as more than a friend but stops talking as she realizes Mowgli heard her, prompting her to blush in embarrassment. Mowgli tries to give her back her jug, to which she slaps her head in disappointment, reluctantly accepts it and says "thank you", and attempts to convince his friend and brother that the jungle offers a life that the village cannot and demonstrates this by showing them a peeling trick. Shanti is unimpressed and debunks Mowgli's point by demonstrating an even more impressive peeling trick on a mango and reiterates her earlier statement about not listening to everything Mowgli says. Mowgli insists that Shanti is speaking out of ignorance and tells every present child that there is so much more to the jungle than just danger. Though skeptical, Shanti is amused by Mowgli's charisma (such as him juggling mangoes and playfully wrestling with her over the mango basket), fitted with a peacock-like crown by him and plays along as he rallies the village children until she notices he is trying to lead them into the jungle. She panics, takes off the peacock crown and inadvertently alerts Ranjan's father, who grounds Mowgli for his disobedience. She tries to apologize but Mowgli refuses to talk to her. Later that night, Shanti, feeling guilty for getting Mowgli into trouble, brings a bowl of fruit to Mowgli's hut to make amends.

Little does she know Shere Khan is waiting in the shadows of the village for Mowgli. Shanti soon finds Mowgli with Baloo and shouts at the sight of the bear and alerts the villagers of a wild animal. This awakens the villagers and they attack Shere Khan, thinking him to be the animal Shanti is referring to. During the havoc, Shanti sees Baloo and Mowgli flee for the jungle and the villagers are too preoccupied with Shere Khan to listen to her. Desperate and believing that Mowgli is being kidnapped, Shanti pursues them on her own, unaware that Ranjan is following her. She hesitates by the river as she sees Baloo running into the jungle but forces herself to go in after them for Mowgli's sake. In the jungle, Shanti's agrizoophobia kicks in as she heads deeper into the wilderness and encounters various frightening nocturnal creatures. She waves her torch in every direction to defend herself but unfortunately, this tactic backfires when she accidentally burns Kaa and exposes herself to him. The ravenous python begins stalking the girl and waits for the right moment to trap her.

Once Shanti realizes she is not alone, she faces her worst nightmare when Kaa reveals himself to the girl and due to her poor survival skills, the snake is easily able to frighten her into looking directly into his eyes and hypnotize her. Shanti gives a brief smile in response to the overwhelming bliss when the hypnosis starts taking effect but due to her emotional state, the hypnosis numbs her mind quickly, resulting in her smile fading away as her mouth is left hanging. Shanti drops her torch, leaving her defenseless. Kaa sadistically gloats and taunts playfully as Shanti's mouth hangs as she stares into the snake's alluring eyes. Kaa inquires condescendingly whether Shanti is lost, stroking her hair before making her nod her head in agreement. He then slithers around the young damsel in distress and makes her turn around, allowing him to admire the girl's incredible beauty as she develops an enormous dumb grin in response to the flood of blissful thoughts induced in her mind by the snake. Having teased her enough, Kaa whispers into her ear that he is starving, bragging about her impending doom. Shanti's smile grew wider and more placid with every second as Kaa makes the helpless girl position herself to be eaten by him. Kaa has Shanti stand on a rock as he prepares to strike. Fortunately, Ranjan saves Shanti's life by pulling her away, leaving Kaa to swallow the rock, while Shanti hits the ground and instantly snaps out of the trance. As Ranjan begins beating Kaa up with a stick, Shanti wakes up in confusion while Ranjan chases the snake away. She is about to take Ranjan back to the village before he convinces her to let him help her.

The next day, as they still search for Mowgli, Shanti realizes that she is completely lost and is out of ideas until Ranjan finds several curly-shaped mango peelings, which Shanti recognizes as the peeling trick she taught him earlier and concludes that her friend is not far.

That same evening, Ranjan gets tired, so Shanti gives him a piggyback ride on her back. Before long, they both hear Mowgli's singing nearby and rush to the source. Shanti finds Mowgli sitting on a tree branch and rushes to him, overjoyed. She catches Mowgli by surprise and the boy falls down and gets tangled up in the vines hanging from the tree. As Shanti and Ranjan try to free him, Shanti asks where Mowgli's "kidnapper" is. Mowgli is about to dodge the issue when Baloo suddenly arrives at the scene and attempts to scare Shanti away only to be caught in the vines and get punched in the nose by the girl.

Mowgli intervenes and chastises Baloo for scaring his friend. Shanti, confused, points out that he was attacking them, but the confused bear recalls Mowgli being the one who told him to do so, much to Shanti and Ranjan's surprise. Mowgli regrettably admits that he did in fact plan this, which breaks Shanti's heart and feeling disappointed and on the verge of tears, she runs off with Ranjan in a tow, finding it difficult to forgive the boy and refusing to listen to Mowgli's attempts to explain himself. Baloo confronts Mowgli about his indecisiveness and reiterates his statement that Shanti is nothing but trouble. Mowgli denies his claim and goes after Shanti and Ranjan to apologize but finds them standing in fear as Shere Khan has found them. Mowgli tells them to run to safety as the tiger approaches. Mowgli then throws dust at his eyes, and runs. Shere Khan goes after him. Mowgli tells Shanti and Ranjan to stay hidden and continues to run. Shanti's concern for Mowgli allows her to conquer her fear of wild animals and runs after him but orders Ranjan to stay hidden until she comes back. Ranjan attempts to follow her but encounters Baloo and warns him of what is happening. At the same time, Bagheera encounters the two and assists them. Shanti follows as Shere Khan chases Mowgli to an ancient temple where they are forced to hide in the shadows. Bagheera looks after Ranjan while Baloo rushes to the temple in order to aid the children.

She runs into Baloo and they quickly recognize each other (Baloo recognizes Shanti as the girl who punched him in the nose and lured Mowgli into the village two years ago, and Shanti recognizes Baloo as the wild bear who carried off Mowgli into the jungle and scared her and Ranjan), and start arguing until they realize their mutual goal to help Mowgli. Baloo suggests they cooperate, which Shanti agrees to and they each hide behind a gong and bang them to confuse Shere Khan, diverting his attention in hopes that it will give them the opportunity to sneak away. Unfortunately, Shanti's gong falls, showing herself to Shere Khan. He calls to Mowgli and threatens to kill Shanti unless he gives himself up. To ensure her safety, Mowgli reveals himself to the tiger, who immediately attacks him. Baloo tries to restrain Shere Khan as Shanti rushes to Mowgli and the two make a run for it. Shere Khan breaks free from Baloo and runs after the children, who leap upon a huge stone tiger head overlooking a lava lake. As they climb, Shere Khan goes after them. However, the stone head collapses and it falls with Mowgli, Shere Khan, and Shanti. Luckily, Baloo catches the children as Shere Khan falls to a ledge, and is then trapped by the head.

The trio leaves the temple and reunites with Bagheera and Ranjan. As Shanti is introduced to Bagheera as Mowgli's best friend from the village, they spot the village search party nearby. Shanti is delighted but Mowgli is reluctant to go, hoping Shanti would stay with him and his old family in the jungle instead. Although Shanti has come to understand why Mowgli loves the jungle, she knows she can never be a part of it like he is. Shanti takes Ranjan and slowly heads towards the search party, and just like the day they first met, Shanti lets Mowgli decide for himself whether or not he wants to come with her. Having gained respect for Shanti for her loyalty and courage, Baloo is convinced that Mowgli is in good hands and realizes that the man-cub cares about the girl too much to let her go. As such, Baloo encourages the boy to go. Mowgli catches up with Shanti and decides he wants to go back with her, much to her joy. Mowgli, Shanti, and Ranjan then reunite with their families. Shanti watches in awe as Mowgli reconciles with his adoptive father and is flattered when Ranjan reveals to everyone that he saved her life from a snake. The search party then heads back to the village.

A few days later, Mowgli and Shanti head to the river to get some water, accompanied by Ranjan. However, their main intention is to visit Baloo and Bagheera. The trio meets with them and begin touring the jungle while singing "Bare Necessities." As the group meanders into the jungle, Mowgli and Shanti hold hands as the film ends, entering a romantic relationship and thus cementing the future Shanti wished for in her song the day she met Mowgli. As such, she is destined to live a long and happy life with Mowgli in the Man Village.

Adventures of Mowgli[]

Shanti is not seen nor mentioned by name, but like in The Spring Running, Mowgli encounters an unnamed girl in the jungle, who was shocked at the sight of him and ran off back to the village. Like Disney's version, she was collecting water in a jar.

Other Appearances[]

The Jungle Book Groove Party[]

Shanti appears at the very end of the game although her voice can be heard humming a song in the middle. Following the story of the film, Mowgli meets Shanti and the two become smitten with one another. As Shanti begins to return to the village, she invites Mowgli to join her, which he accepts.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures[]

Shanti herself does not appear in the game but she is mentioned by Mowgli when he assigns the player one of his tasks. This is one of the only pieces of media that refers to Shanti as her name given in The Jungle Book 2 rather than simply "The Girl".

Disney Parks[]

She is in a park of some sort, mostly appearing in Journey in The Jungle Book Musical at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and briefly appears in The Jungle Book segment for Disney on Ice's Jungle Adventures.

Once Upon A Studio[]

Shanti, in her original design from the original film, makes a brief cameo in this short film appearing in the group photo along with the rest of Disney characters.

Trivia[]

  • Shanti's animation from the original film was used as a reference by Mark Henn when animating Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
  • Shanti had a solo to sing about finding her friend Mowgli, but the scene was deleted on account of Disney producers deciding that the song would take too much attention from Mowgli and the story plot.
  • It is unknown who Shanti's father is or if he is still alive.
  • Even though she wasn't raised in the jungle, she somehow can speak to the other animals.
  • Shanti is shown with great skills of peeling a Mango.
  • It's unknown what Shanti had reasons for fearing the jungle as it could be due to her father as we never see him in the film and why Ranjan's father has a scar on his arm.
  • Mae Whitman, the voice for Shanti, is better known for voicing Katara in The Last Airbender and April in the 2012 TMNT series,
  • When you hear and see Shanti ripping her skirt on a branch when she went into the jungle to look for Mowgli you don't see the rip anywhere for the rest of the movie.
  • In The Jungle Book, Shanti is only known as "The Girl". In an old The Jungle Book comic made in 1973, her name was Sari. In The Jungle Book 2, her name is revealed to be Shanti. Also, in the original film, she only appeared near the end of the film, while in the sequel, she is now the deuteragonist and she has a larger role than in the original film.
  • An obscure foreign-language novelization rendered the village girl's name as "Jasmine". Obviously, this wouldn't fly after 1992, so the movie and subsequent merchandise and press material for the first film gave her a different name.
  • Shanti's appearance in the Jungle Book is far from the one in the Jungle Book 2. In the first film, she is shown with pigtails and bows in her hair and wears pink, depicting a more feminine nature, while in the second film, she has a more conventional Indian look.
  • The name Shanti means "peace" in various Indian languages.
  • While the character doesn't appear in Kipling's original Jungle Book stories, it's later revealed that Mowgli - now a young man - married an unnamed Indian woman and had a son with her, all of them living in the jungle together with Mowgli's animal friends. It's possible that Shanti is the Disney adaption of that woman.
  • Shanti was also based on an unnamed woman that briefly appears in "The Spring Running" from The Second Jungle Book.
  • Like most of the people of the Man Village, Shanti walks around barefoot.
  • Shanti claims to get grounded all the time.
  • Not counting song lyrics, humming, a brief giggle, and a minor gasp, Shanti does not have any dialogue in the original film.
  • She is completely absent from the 2016 live-action remake, The Jungle Book, as in this film, Mowgli did not came to the human village.

Gallery[]

Jungle-book
Jungle Book Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Shanti which can be found at Shanti/Gallery.
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