The Hindu : National : Animation artist honoured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 05, 2006

National

National

Animation artist honoured

Staff Reporter

Mumbai International Film Festival gets under way

MUMBAI: "This award is not just in recognition of my work but of the entire animation fraternity, which is now stepping out of ... anonymity," said legendary animation artist Ram Mohan, who was given the Dr. V Shantaram Award for Lifetime Achievement at the inauguration of the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).

The ninth edition of the festival is screening scores of short films, documentaries and animation films from 30 countries, from February 3 to 9.

The bi-annual festival opened with `Yellow Fella,' an Australian documentary, about Tom E. Lewis, actor and filmmaker, known for his role in the 1978 film, `The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.' The 25-minute documentary tells the story of Mr. Lewis, whose mother is an indigenous woman of southern Arnhem Land and father is a Welsh stockman he never knew.

The next film was the 13-minute Torzija, a spirited Slovenian fiction film, directed by Stefan Arsenijevic. While a choir group, trying to escape war-torn Sarajevo, waits for a tunnel to clear, a cow has difficulty giving birth because of the "torsion" affecting its calf (i.e., it's in a twisted position inside). One of them is also a vet, and the film depicts how the cow and the calf are saved with the help of the chorus to drown out the sounds of war.

Earlier, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the Government planned to convert Mumbai into a mega city, which would provide avenues for entertainment and film industry.

Ashok Chavan, Minister of Industries; Pradeep Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; and Raghu Krishna, Director MIFF, attended the ceremony.

The function ended with the screening of `Ryan,' a 13-minute animation film, directed by Chris Landreth.

It is a tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Nearly 30 years ago, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time.

The film shows, through imaginative animation, how he came to lead a lowly life of begging and drinking in downtown Montreal.

It was a telling comment on the difficult lives of animation artists, as mentioned by Mr. Ram Mohan earlier. He said: "Earlier animators were doomed to survive on the peripheries of Indian cinema ... however, the industry has changed and now faces a severe shortage of technicians and artists."

The veteran, who has been in the animation industry for five decades, said he would shortly launch a school of animation.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail