In 2005, Sahara India Pariwar of India, Percept Pictures and Silvertoons released India’s first major commercial family animated feature titled Hanuman. While the animation was not comparable to the ones produced by Pixar or Disney we felt that this movie was not bad either. The animation was decent and the movie was watchable. Besides that, Hanuman was really cute.
While Hollywood has to resort to tales about fish, cars and robots, in India we have such rich stories to choose from. Our mythologies like Ramayana and Mahabharata contain various sub stories and wonderful characters which can be used to teach moral values to children. The previous generation grew up on Amar Chitra Kathas, but that will not go well with the new TV watching generation and animation movies are the best way to get to them. If the movies we done very well, then even adults will find it interesting.
Nalin Singh, an NRI, has decided to make an animation movie about Lord Ayyappa. Titled Manikantan, this will be the first of its kind in Malayalam.
The 2-D movie will be dubbed in other regional languages and in English too. Scriptwriter Krishnakumar says the story of Manikantan will be narrated through the eyes of a seven-year-old Parvati and her parrot Panchami. “But the focal point of the story is neither Parvati nor Manikantan. It is actually a golden bell that once belonged to Manikantan. Parvati, who finds this bell, is magically transported to the world in which Manikantan once lived,†says Krishnakumar.
According to Reji Syne, the director of the movie, ‘Manikantan’ will not follow the Disney style of making. “Most Indian animators ape the Disney style especially in characterisation when making an animation movie. We, however, are making it as Indian as possible with a mural-like feel to the scenes. Just as the Japanese have a stamp of their own, we are trying to create ours.â€[Legend of Manikantan]
Animation movies also have the added advantage that they don’t require the dates of superstars, minor stars and asteroids for their production. The only time the stars are required are for dubbing and this would free the script writers to focus on the story and make it as visually pleasing as possible. These are nascent steps for the full length animation movies and it is wonderful that Kerala is right there from the beginning.
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November 24, 2007 at 5:54 am
I did hear the Director saying the same thing on Aisanet Suprabhatham(about following Indian style in the animations). Honestly whatever was seen as trailers were well below Indian standards, leave alone matching international standards. We get much better quality, here in Chennai!
At this stage, The Director and Animators should concentrate more on character development and storyboarding than talk big. Honest opinion
December 9, 2007 at 1:23 am
I completely agree. Post your opinions at http://manikantanmovie.blogspot.com where the entire Manikantan crew will read it.