Padmashri RamMohan: The life of a Legend TASI session!

It a huge honour and overwhelming responsibility to curate this retrospective of Padmashri RamMohan presented by The Animation Society of India, TASI.
We hope it will become more than a lineup of his work, becoming instead, an 'Appreciation' of his ceaseless creativity as we show excerpts from a long career of nearly 60 years starting with the creation of Film' Division's Cartoon Film Unit in 1956 all the way to 2015!! and peppered with his sketches of characters, storyboards, concepts and anecdotes from key people concerned with these projects!!
Also with all the enthusiasm that we have gathered from speaking to his and our numerous colleagues, it promises to be a reunion of sorts for the very large RamMohan 'gharana' whose members drive a large chunk of Indian Animation today.
Please consider this post a personal invitation from TASI, The
Animation Society of India, Gayatri and myself to attend this event. 21 December, Whistling woods, Goregaon. 11 am sharp.
Please share and pass on to all who might be interested!! Its a free event!

"On the Joy of Working with Children" Interview in the Hindu

Well... This interview was quite a pleasure as the reporter was actually interested in the work and asked meaningful questions... thats fairly rare.. ;)
A pleasant side-effect of the second edition of the Vizag Junior Literary Fest which I had the pleasure of participating in last month...

https://www.thehindu.com/children/illustrator-chetan-sharma-on-the-joy-of-working-with-children/article30114385.ece?fbclid=IwAR1GRV5Sr7rp5V9760TcNlQowAQ1ItYhzFiwUb1UILRHEgXjFETrXyMK7zk

A hundred years ago! - Dadasaheb Phalke's Shri Krishna Janma form 1918!!

On this happy day I was made even happier by the discovery of this treasure on youtube!!! We live in lucky times! SO presenting Dadasaheb Phalke's presentation on Krishna's birth from 1918!!!!! Exactly a hundred years back!!One of the early pioneering efforts in Indian filmmaking, 'the film' is not complete but only a very small fragment 10% (less than six mins) of its original hour long length... 

And it is a silent film - jumpy-jerky-all over the place to our 'well adjusted to cinema spectacle' eyes... but its a wonder to behold nevertheless.. for me at any rate :)

And as a bonus the video is combined with a fragment of another Phalke film - 1927's Bhakta Prahlad!!

Only sticking to Shri Krishna's theme for now -

Witness the harried people beseeching the Gods for help as Lord Vishnu reclined on Sheshnag with Devi Lakshmi and Brahmaji on the lotus emerge from the sea..Lord Vishnu 'shows' the suffering folk his intent.. he will incarnate as Shri Krishna, but transforming into the little child.. (this is a simple and great example of the visual language.. seems obvious but isn't)

Dadasheb Phalke's daughter Mandakini Phalke plays little Krishna in this as well the other epic "Kaliya Mardan" 1919

Then the fragments again 'show' Kamsa's hallucination.. yes.. this 'akashvani' or the warning from the ether is also shown in a brilliant sequence where Kamsa is overwhelmed by multiple Shri Ks of different ages who he tries to fight off in vain by slashing at air with his sword! 

But... before that is on of the great examples of visual effects in films, which stands well against the best being done anywhere in the world at that time ( incl George melies!!) Kamsa hallucinates or sees his head flying off his body in a geyser of blood!! "It is part of film lore that the blood in this trickshot was hand tinted red!" - Light of Asia -Indian silent Film edited by Suresh Chabria- #currentlyreading - #serendipity)

I love this end of film title card... apparently the silent film was accompanied by actual singing of bhajans and aartis at the end of screening for the devout to get the full experience of having witnessed Shri Krishna!

Enjoy and salute the great pioneers on whose shoulders we stand -(or try to :))

Shri Krishna Janmashtami - an offering

...The baby cried as soon as the shackles were back on and the gates shut once again behind them.. The sleeping soldiers who had snored thru the entire adventure of Krishna being born and smuggled out of prison were roused from their sleep.. they rushed to their king! 

Outside the rain, wind and thunder continued their violent performance anxious and steadily moving to the climax of the events of this long night..

"The poor child!!" she wailed.. "but its a girl, Devaki! the prophecy said the eight would be a boy..."! Even though he had been out in the rain most of this night crossing the Yamuna in spate, twice, to transport the saviour to safety to his friend, Nand's house and bringing back his newborn child as instructed by the Divine voice.

The tyrant wasted no time in getting to the dungeons... this was the moment of truth.. the moment he had been waiting for... the moment for which he had his sister and her husband imprisoned... the birth of the eight son! The son who was foretold to be his doom! His eyes bloodshot with the anxiety of years he looked at the child... a girl?... brushing away Vasudev and Devaki's pleas for mercy, he held the infant by her leg like he had all her seven elder brothers... and raised the wailing child up in the air to dash her to the ground like he had the rest...
but she slipped from his fingers and became light.. before he could blink, she laughed!
She was MahaMaya- the goddess of illusion herself and she teased him "your slayer is alive and well...!!
Kamsa's life was now of a man waiting for his death.. he would fight his fate ofcourse... but his every living moment would be consumed with the vision of the avenging child.. his nightmares were the dreams of deliverance for the people of Mathura...and indeed his own... though he knew it not.

art & retelling (C) Chetan Sharma 2018

Happy Birthday Dilip Saab!

The 11th of December was the Legendary Thespian's 'happy' birthday!! Just thought of these really old sketches of him done for an animation piece sometime in 2000.. almost 13 years ago! With the sudden realisation of the passage of time, also dawned the realisation of the timelessness of an artist's work... Dilip Kumar was at the forefront of creativity and success in Indian Cinema for many decades of its golden age and has inspired countless actors from Dharamendra to Amitabh Bachchan to Shahrukh et al.. and somewhere down there in that list of the inspired I find a very earnest myself... I have always loved Dilipji, with not a feeling of an actor but strangely as an elder to look upto.. a person from my own family.. that I feel very close to tho I dont know him at all..
Anyway an old sketch from 13 years ago with a lil touch up.. (this was a printout of an image in our files which used a ruff sketch in the original..) Hope you like it and remember that we become who we do on the shoulders of the ones who came before us.. in his case, its the shoulder of a giant!

Dilip Kumar in 2000 and a flashback from Naya Daur..one of my favorite moments in Hindi cinema

Tomorrow!!!! See you in Pune!

Getting excited..1st ever session on 'Swami Ayyappan'

"Work in Progress" Behind the scenes of 'Swami Ayyappan' & 'Return of the Jungle!'

This weekend its a date in Pune- the cultural capital of Maharashtra!
The Animation Society of India (TASI) has organised a session on the 30th to bring two directors to spill/spell out the ingredients of their recipes for making their latest animation projects which are still under-production!
Vaibhav Kumaresh (Vaibhav Studios) will present the WIP of his labour of Love "Return of the Jungle" (40mins, 3D animation) & Yours humbly will present the labours of the last one and half year behind Animagic's 2nd feature length film- a co-production with Toonz Animation India- "Swami Ayyappan" (90mins, 2D )

The presentations will include animatics, developmental sketches, character designs, layouts, Storyboards, as well as finished scenes!!

The intention behind the presentation is to share the inner workings of the movie making process.. to  debunk a few myths but also initiate the audience into the mysteries of animated filmmaking... an art that is only learnt thru persistent doing it.. doing it...and doing it some more! 
We will share our own paths that are different and yet have so much in common as well. . How we have translated our love and passion for animation will be easily understandable with the behind the scenes material.  We hope to transfer some of the joy we feel making animation films and maybe have an exchange of ideas with the audience about the shape of things to come.

 We are very excited!!! Please Gather all your friends for this special afternoon..we promise to make it worth your while!!!

HAPPY 50 YEARS DOCTOR WHO!!

I discovered the Doctor from his 11th incarnation.. so he is my favourite..His personality, quirks, mannerisms (as played by the amazing Matt Smith ) were just so animated that I quickly became addicted!! (Amy Pond played her part too.. to be fair) But this show was one of the most brilliant TV experiences ever.. for those who havent yet checked it out.. I dont know what to say.. cant describe what you have been missing!
The Doctor completed 50 years yesterday and the special episode "The day of the Doctor" was simulcast in 80 countries and 1400 cinema halls.. won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records!!

Here is a tribute to the Doctor's spirit. Heroic optimism! One of my favorite moments from the 5th season."The Pandorica opens"... the Doctor faces countless alien ships with nothing but his wits!