Shanti

**Shanti** (originally known as **The Girl**) is a minor character in Disney's 1967 animated feature film, *The Jungle Book*, and the tritagonist of *The Jungle Book 2*. She is a little girl from the Man Village known for her lovely singing voice and beautiful eyes. When Mowgli the man-cub first encounters Shanti, he becomes so entranced by her beauty that he decides to leave the jungle in favor of living amongst humans in the village.

## Appearance

Shanti is a preteen, slender, and incredibly beautiful girl with olive 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.

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 bindi, 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.

## Personality

Shanti is best described as a sweet, introverted, loyal, rational, 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 truly hurt 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, 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. 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.

An introvert, Shanti generally prefers to keep her thoughts to herself, though she is comfortable expressing her feelings to someone she can trust. She is also somewhat self-conscious about her appearance and actions. As such, she takes great care of her looks (particularly her hair) and only expresses her deepest fantasies about her adulthood when she is, or thinks she is, alone. Nevertheless, Shanti is impressed by Mowgli's popularity among the village children and gladly participates in entertaining activities set up by Mowgli, though usually only after Mowgli has managed to charm her. After successfully amusing her, Shanti usually shows her appreciation and gratitude by blinking her eyes at Mowgli to remind him of the day they first met, knowing the boy has a soft spot for her beautiful eyes.

Although she enjoys good stories and fantasies, Shanti is somewhat down-to-earth and was very skeptical about the possibility of Mowgli being actually raised in the jungle and having befriended a bear and a panther. As such, she initially assumed Mowgli was simply an orphan from a different faraway village who got lost in the jungle and that his stories were either made up or exaggerated in order to gain popularity. However, once she was introduced to Baloo and Bagheera, she realized Mowgli's stories were all true.

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.