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It’s a TOONZ LIFE

Photos S. Gopakumar

Animated career K.P. Muraleedharan

Soft spoken and shy K.P. Muraleedharan becomes animated the minute you talk to him about cartoons and stories for children. His fingers sketch characters in the air and his eyes sparkle as he reels off impromptu stories, one after the other about animals, birds and children.

Murali, a designer and concept artist at Technopark-based Toonz Animation, is puzzled why India, in general, and Kerala specifically, does not have stories for children that are based on the local culture and folk tales.

“We have so many captivating stories for kids. But think animation, and our mind races to popular Disney characters, POGO and so on. Although some of our beloved mythological heroes have been animated we still do not have characters like, say a Mickey Mouse or Tom and Jerry.”

However, recently one of his characters, six-year-old Paddy, hit the headlines when Toonz Animation signed an agreement with the Canada-based Spectra Animation to co-produce an animated television serial called ‘Paddy’s Pages’ at a cost of $ 7 million. Targetted at pre-school kids, the 52 episodes of ‘Paddy’s Pages’ takes children on an enchanted journey that introduces them to the pleasure of reading, helps them discover their environment and hone their problem-solving skills.

“It was Atul Rao, who was creative director in Toonz, who saw the potential of one of my concepts and called it Paddy. It was sent to the Asia Television Forum for the Singapore Pitch where it won the third prize. That enthused us at Toonz and we got down to make a pilot episode,” recalls Murali.

The episode (available on YouTube) shows Paddy reading a huge book filled with colourful animals. Finally, noticing the predicament of one of the characters, Paddy enters the book and shares the adventures of the animals and also learns how rain is formed. ‘Paddy’s Pages,’ an official selection to the 2007 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, shows how Paddy, a little boy in a big world, becomes a big boy in a little world when he enters the world of books. Once the concept was developed, the stories and characters were further developed by the team at Spectra Animation.

According to Toonz Animation chief executive P. Jayakumar: “Paddy is perhaps the first Indian concept to be accepted for a major work like this. The television series is expected to be completed by 2011.”

It is a moment of triumph for the fine arts graduate from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, who joined Toonz Animation in 1999.

“Although I was posted in production, I found it a struggle to stick to the story and visuals that we had to develop. I felt as though I was losing my individuality and creativity. Often, my ideas would creep in and alter the original work…,” recalls Murali who adds that he struggled to find his own visual grammar to create characters and stories with a local angle.

He says candidly that he took time to find his own space and strengths and it was Atul who helped him identify his advantages. Finally, he came up with a short film called ‘Aaana’ about the often tricky relationship between elephants and mahouts. It that took him places, literally. “The five-minute film was screened in the Mumbai International Film Festival for documentary, short and animation films. That was the first time I travelled in an aeroplane,” recalls Murali.

While continuing with his work, the 39-year-old artist longed to come up with a character that would reach out to children and also whet their curiosity to explore and learn. To entertain his son Niranjan, Murali often made up stories based on his surroundings. “Children enjoy playing the protagonist in their world of fantasy. Their imagination knows no bounds and the minute they are involved in a story, they are hooked to it. That is how Paddy was born,” says Murali.

Thrilled at the recognition won by Paddy, Murali admits that it is a heady feeling to know that a character created by him would be seen by children in other countries too.

While work goes on to help Paddy and his adventures gain global viewers, Murali’s imagination has already conjured up another animation film called ‘Sacred Eggs.’

“I devour eggs and it was my guilty conscious that triggered this film. The film shows that survival of the fittest is the axiom of nature,” he explains.

Buoyed by the success of Paddy, Murali is setting his sights high. His ambition is to make a full-length feature film on the lines of ‘Roger Rabbit’ and ‘Garfield.’

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