Abdul
Gani
Guwahati:
In order to showcase Assam’s great 15th-century saint, Sankardeva, in a lively
and spirited way, filmmaker Sanjeev Narain and his company have launched a
project Sarbagunakara Srimanta Shankardeva, an animation film on the saint’s
life and teachings.
The 90-minute feature will be the first-ever Assamese
animated film since Jyotiprasad Agarwala came with his path-breaking ‘Joymati’
in 1935. “I always want to do something new in my life. This project came to my
mind some five years back, but today I’m the happiest man to be able to declare
that we are making the first-ever animated Assamese feature film, and that too,
on Sankardeva,” said Sanjeev Narain, producer of the film.
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| A portrait of Shankardeva. Photo: indianetzone.com |
The film is being made to market it internationally
with the latest technology. “Kolkata-based Kaleidoscope is looking after the
technical aspects. We will dub the film in English, Hindi and Bengali for the
global market,” he added. Around 140 people have already started working round
the clock to finish the film in next six months.
National award-winning filmmaker Manju Bora is directing
the film. “I congratulate Sanjeev for his initiative to make such a film. When
he proposed the idea, I straightway said yes, and since then that thought kept
knocking my mind,” said Bora, whose Akashitarar Kathare won the best regional
film award in 2003.
She is enthusiastic with the plot, and has vowed to do
justice to the theme. “I really like the idea and feel proud to be a part of
the project. It’s not possible to cover the complete life of the saint in just
90 minutes, but I have tried my best to do justice to the subject,” she added.
The music of the film is being looked after by
talented Tarali Sharma.
The history of animation is almost a century old. El
Apóstol (The Apostle), an Argentine animated film utilising cut-out animation
in 1917, is regarded as the world’s first animated feature film. It was written
and directed by Quirino Cristiani. It consisted of a total of 58,000 frames
played over the course of 70 minutes at 14 frames per second.
In India, animation came much later in 1974 when the
Films Division of India released Ek Anek Aur Ekta (one, many, and unity). It is
a traditionally-animated short educational film which was telecast on the
Doordarshan.
Of late, this genre of film has gained much
popularity across the globe with films like Ice Age, Finding Nemo, Lion King,
Shrek, Happy Feet, Kungfu Panda, Hercules, Madagascar etc, have posed a tough
challenge to other films. This has fancied the imagination of kids and adults
alike. Indian viewers also have their own versions of animation films like
Hanuman, Krishna, Return of Hanuman, Roadside Romeo, Bal Ganesh, Arjuna: The
Warrior Prince, Delhi Safari, etc, to name a few.
However, critics feel that India has still miles to
go to compete with their Hollywood counterparts in so far as the quality of
such films is concerned. “Animation as a genre of films is yet to be evolved
fully in India, though we have had stray hits like Hanuman.
The problem with
animation filmmaking is that it’s highly expensive if one wants to do it
visually appealing up to the level of what we see in international films, be it
in Hollywood or in Japan,” New Delhibased film critic Utpal Borpujari told
Seven Sisters Post. But there is a positive atmosphere to bring a change in
this regard.
“And the audiences have access to superb animation
films like Madagascar. Indian films are also evolving in quality, and the
recent Arjuna: The Warrior Prince is a good example. Nikhil Advani’s Delhi
Safari also seems to have quality animation going by its promo, and so does
Govind Nihalani’s Kamlu,” the national award winning film critic added.
However, Borpujari, who was a jury member in several
international film festivals, is hopeful of the project. “Srimanta Sankardev is
definitely a great subject for animation. What’s important is that this subject
has to be treated with high-quality animation and interesting treatment to woo
the international market. I hope this project has the required budget to scale
that height,” he said. (Seven Sisters Post)
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