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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.7 - OCTOBER 1999

India's Growing Might
(continued from page 1)

This Our India. Courtesy of the India Films Division.

In 1960, Ezra Mir used G.K. Gokhale to animate a social awareness animation called A Great Problem, which dealt with family planning issues, and is probably one of the earliest pro-social animations. This was also internationally acclaimed. Ezra Mir produced This Our India in 1961, which was animated by G.K. Gokhale, with music by Vijay and directed by Pramod Pati. Later Ezra Mir went on to become one of India's best documentary filmmakers. Nevertheless, his achievements in early animation are still very valuable. Vijay, as we see later, is the eminent music director Vijay Raghav Rao, who in 1969 created the music for a 9-minute animation Chaos, directed by V.K. Gokhale, with commentary by Alyque Padamsee. Other films made in this period and slightly later by the Films Division include Metric System, My Wise Daddy, Shadow And Substance, Dreams Of Mojiram and Healthy And Happy. Under Clair Weeks, other trainees included Mr. A.R. Sen who made films like The Thinker and Skin In The Bin. Sen has just suddenly passed away in an unfortunate accident in Pune a few days ago. In addition to A.R. Sen, Suresh S. Naik, Narvekar and More, 15 artists were working in the Cartoon Film Unit then. They were mostly making promotional films on government policies, family planning, hygiene, etc. However the lack of governmental funds and other bureaucratic hazards ultimately almost brought the Films Division's activities to a near hault.

It was then in 1969 that Ram Mohan, Suresh Naik, Praful and Satam all left the Films Division to join Prasad Productions. Up until 1979 this core group worked for Prasad, creating many interesting animation films, including Ram Mohan's Harmony. Bhimsain went on to open his own independent studio called Climb Films, where he has been working independently ever since making feature films as well as an immense number of animation films. Another studio which deserves mention in this context, and which did a lot of animation work for other independent filmmakers like Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, was Rauko Laboratories. Headed by S.R. Rao, Rauko, was the only place besides Prasads where filmmakers who needed animation work done could go. Existing even as late as 1987, all of the National Institute of Design's (NID) films were processed there, including the present writers' NID diploma film, Inch By Inch, Anjan Ghosh's Green Story and Dilip Goswami's The Human Dilemma. In fact, it was at NID that we first heard about Rauko and later Sandip Ray, Satyajit Ray's son, who is an eminent filmmaker himself. He also told me a lot about how Suresh S. Naik's studio and Rauko were the only places for special effects and animation work for people outside of the government system. Suresh Naik opened his own studio Cine Magic in 1979, and Ram Mohan opened his studio, Ram Mohan Biographics, in practically the same period. His films, mainly innumerable ad-spots and other films, were then shot exclusively at Cine Magic. As Suresh Naik says, "Ram Mohan and I share a very long professional relationship, spanning more than 20 years."

As Indian animation gradually started picking up momentum in the hands of these animators, some other studios, like Gimmicks and Pictoreel Facet, opened in Bombay, but not much is known about the work they were doing. Since there was a great boom in the animation-ad industry, that must have been their source of sustenance. Unfortunately, these studios are no longer in business, and rigorous research is necessary to unearth more material on them specifically.

The most important task that the Films Division undertook on a national level was the organization of the Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films. On March 1, 1990 the first festival had as its Director V.B. Chandra, and the jury included distinguished film personalities like Ulrich Gregor, Ishu Patel, Dennis O'Rourke, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Erika Richter and Mikhail Litviakov. From its very inception, it was a competitive festival and cash prizes were given in different categories. The first festival had a Lumiere retrospective and was scheduled to be held every two years. From the very next festival in 1992, it was renamed the Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, stressing and showcasing the growing importance of animation in the Indian context. A special section was organized in 1992 and called the World of Animation Cinema. The works of John Halas, Ishu Patel, Osamu Tezuku, Jiri Brdecka, Jiri Trnka, NID animations, Children's Film Society Animation, and others were all screened. Lectures and demonstrations were held on the art and technology of animation by Barry Parker and Ishu Patel. A seminar on computer versus traditional animation, and an exhibition on the history and evolution of animation cinema were also included. (As usual, this writer and other Eastern region animators did not have the resources to be present, and it is solely by courtesy of the Films Division, who have been kind enough to supply a massive amount of material from their archives, edited by Amrit Gangaur and others, along with the help of other animators both young and old that have made this article possible.)

From 1990 onwards, the Mumbai International Festival for Short, Documentary and Animation Films has grown to be one of the biggest and most important short film festivals in the world and is considered one of the four most important short film festivals, along with the Oberhausen and Mannheim Festivals. The last festival was held in 1998, and was especially important since it coincided with an exhibit of Indian animation which was screened at the acclaimed Hiroshima International Animation Festival. The Films Division's present director Bankim and others, helped gather 50 Indian animation films to be screened in Hiroshima, which made MIFF an important factor in the growth of Indian animation on a worldwide level. The Festival has from its very beginning started a special section, "Spectrum India," to project the best documentary and animation films produced in the previous three years. This is an important addition since animators, critics and film-buffs from all over the world gather to discuss and screen their films and exchange ideas.

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Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.