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Magazine
ANIMATION
Colours that still communicate
MALA KUMAR
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Dhvani Desai’s animation film for children, “Manpasand”, successfully adapts the ancient Sanjhi art to the modern medium and is winning acclaim worldwide.
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Dhvani Desai.
When Dhvani Desai was invited to screen her film at the 9th Hamburg Children‘s Short Film Festival, Germany, she was pleasantly surprised. While most films were shown only once during the festival, her 11-minute animation film, “Manpasand
” was screened thrice. “It vindicated my stand that ancient Indian art forms and classical music do have the power to attract today’s children,” says Dhvani, the film’s director.
Produced by the Children’s Film Society of India, the film won a Bronze World Medal in the Home Video – Children’s Programmes category at the 2008 New York Festival’s Film and Video Awards in January. Based on a Panchatantra tale about a mouse that falls into the hands of a sage, the film has been made using the traditional Sanjhi art of Mathura. “We need to remember, revive and respect our traditional arts, and using the Sanjhi format for my film seemed a good way to promote this art,” says Dhvani.
Sanjhi, an ancient Vaishnavite art, involves cutting paper to form intricate stencils depicting the life of Krishna and Radha. The stencils are used in different ways. Some are placed on freshly plastered mud walls and filled with coloured powder. Some are placed on plates smeared with mustard oil. After filling the stencil with various powders, the stencil is lifted gently and the plate made to float on the river. The heavy plate is then taken out as it goes down leaving only the beautiful Sanjhi floating on a bed of oil! Folklore has it that since the artists started working in the morning but displayed the creation only in the evening, the art got named Sanjhi, Hindi for evening. In modern times, the stencils are made on rice paper and other strong materials to be made into lamp shades and other utility products. The art has also found acceptance as bindis to adorn foreheads.
Hope floats
“Manpasand: The Perfect Match” starts with a grandmother watching her granddaughter paint. She tells the young girl about how unmarried girls in the 17th century used to make sanjhis while visualising a husband “of their choice” — manpasand — and set it afloat in the Yamuna river. “I was amazed to learn that what these girls were attempting was actually creative visualisation, something that modern day gurus like Deepak Chopra and Robin Sharma speak about. This fitted even better into my story about a mouse that is turned into a young girl and how she and her guardian search for the right groom for her,” says Dhvani. “I found it interesting that the tale is very similar to the ones in Chinese, Japanese, African and Mayan folk tales,” adds the film-maker.
Wide acclaim
The animated Panchatantra film has been officially selected for 10 international film festivals all over the world. Last year it was also nominated to the International Animation Film Festival in Hollywood. Besides being selected at Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, China, Greece, Slovak Republic and Turkey, it was also shown at Hyderabad’s “The Golden Elephant” last November.
Behind the success of this film is a serendipitous link with The Hindu. In 2003, while ideating for a children’s animation film, Dhvani came across an art form that she found tantalising. An artist friend said it resembled the Sanjhi form of stencilling. Research on the Internet and in libraries yielded no results on the art form. Then a classmate from her MBA course came across this journalist’s article in The Hindu’s Bangalore edition titled “Adorning walls and foreheads”. The article highlighted the paper-stencilling work of artists Lov Kumar Soni and Mohan Vermi showcased at ‘Kamala’, an exhibition organised by Crafts Council of India in alliance with the Crafts Council of Karnataka. With one call to The Hindu’s office in Chennai, Dhvani could reach me, and through me to the artists in faraway Mathura.
Striking visuals: Sanjhi art used in the movie.
“We went to Mathura, and even though we lived on the same street as Soni, no one could tell me anything about him. After three days of searching for him in and around the ghats, we found his tiny, half-opened, inconspicuous shop….full of his Sanjhi samples!”
Dhvani worked with artists in Mathura and in her own studio in Mumbai to make modern depictions of the tradition art. The film took over two years to make. “Having chosen an ancient art form, I was particular that the background music too should evoke distinct Indian flavours. Suresh Wadkar sang the title song. We used Durbari, Pahadi and Miyan Malhar and I think the raagas complemented the art,” comments Dhvani.
Involved in animation
Dhvani’s earlier animated film “The Mahatma” (co-directed with elder brother and filmmaker Sanskar Desai) was selected at the Tehran International Animation Festival (2001), Iran, and at MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival) India. She has been a member of the executive committee of IAAFA (Indian Academy of Advertising Film Art) and the selection committee of the First Digital Children Film Festival, New Delhi, 2006. An animator for the last 16 years, Dhvani has her own studio, Metamorphosis, where she does computer animation and special effects for ad films. Dhvani and her sister both write poetry — not surprising considering their father Sudhir Desai is a well-known and senior poet, while mother Tarini Desai is an award-winning short story writer.
Through this film, Dhvani Desai has tried to give prominence to ancient arts. “I wanted to give children something more than just an attractive story,” she says. “Like the sanjhis in the Yamuna, there are so many wishes floating in the Universe waiting to be blessed….I’m just doing my bit to get blessings!” jokes the lady, waiting patiently for her own “manpasand”.
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