Eulogy to Indian Cartoon Industry

 The beginnings

One of the earlier known animation was the “Flip Book”, a simple yet unique invention. But going back to the 1600’s the technique of a magic lantern was developed, giving the early signs of the animated world. Over the years newer techniques and technologies have facilitated creating beautiful and majestic worlds. Animation is profoundly beautiful, a blank canvas of opportunity, letting the world see things never physically possible. Art has always been the channel of human expression much before cinema was perceived.

From early projections through lantern or glass to handmade drawings running through projectors or filmed on camera. Animation has evolved itself into a reckoning force, it has moved beyond the kid’s entertainment to adult animation like The Simpsons, South Park or Family Guy. Probably the world’s best known and most successful animators was Walt Disney, he gave us great characters like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse etc. His work inspired artists like Hanna Barbara who created “Tom & Jerry”.

Today the world of animation knows no bounds, animated movies are constantly top grossers. Not only that movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo have cult followings among cinema goers and a must watch for every child.

India’s animation world

What I am here to talk about is the Indian animation world and especially the Indian cartoon channels. Animated movies in India are still seen as a food for kids, hence they have never moved beyond the cheesy characters into real cinema. The target group is small, so is the investment which keeps our technology at a nascent stage as compared to the global scenario. Even with big stars giving their voice to movies like Jumbo(Akshay Kumar) or Toonpur ka Sultan(Ajay Devgan) the sophistication of the production is very poor.

 I grew up reading comics by Pran Kumar Sharma of Diamond Comics, fans like me would remember Billu, Pinki and Chacha Chaudhary. Even to this day these are the most original creations ever. I moved to Tinkle, Tintin and the simpleton Suppandi. As a child in days of just DD National and Metro we got one hour of toon every day and shows like Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, Duck Tales, Tales Pin, TMNT etc. There were superheroes like Batman, Spiderman or our very own He-Man.

                                                                     

When Cartoon Network made its presence felt in 1995, I was enamored by the whole wide world of cartoons Dexter’s Laboratory, Captain Planet, Swat Cats, Johnny Quest and many more. These shows were excellent even if they lacked in animation they more than made up for it by pure uninhibited entertainment. My friends would remember those days playing Contra and catching Scooby Doo at 8. While Aahat solidified our belief in ghosts, Scooby Doo taught us ghosts aren’t real. Those few years were great for kids who got to see such great cartoons.

But as I grew up  I saw the fading state of Indian cartoon channels, now instead of one we have many Pogo, Disney, Animax. I have a younger brother and I asked him why you don’t watch cartoons and he tells me they are boring. So while I grew up, our cartoon channels dumbed down, they included a heavy dose of Indian characters like Bheem, Karan etc but where the spark, the fun or the entertainment was. These shows were more mythological than the real Mahabharata. If that wasn’t enough we borrowed majority of shows from Japan. If Pokemon wasn’t enough, there is Doremon or BeyBlade, the whole trifecta. I remember seeing Shin Chan and couldn’t recall any cartoon that depicted such behavior. . Though I hear a sister channel Boomerang runs all these classics but it is not available in India.

The sad part is with these shoddy shows running on mainstream networks, most kids would never know what they have missed. I feel bad for this generation who never got to taste the beautiful delicacies of cartoons and have to settle for second grade shows.

Talaash: Even Mr. Perfect can go wrong

A very strong track record, we expect nothing but perfection from Aamir Khan. He is so profoundly perfect in his moves, that it begs the question what can move this mountain. His recent TV stint though far from perfect did make its mark on the television audience. For those 90 minutes the country was galvanized. He is called Mr. Perfect for nothing, all his recent movies have been a notch above or something different than the day to day mashed up dish we are served. In all this junk food, Aamir’s movies are fine dine complete with a glass of wine.

Excel Entertainment should be a very proud production house which can boast of very strong titles like Dil Chahta Hain, Lakshya, Rock On and I can go on. They have always brought alive new cinema and given opportunities to fresh directors. The same can be said for Aamir Khan Productions, these two coming together certainly is an event to watch out for.

The expectations from Talaash were huge, as is with every Aamir movie. Big names were attached to the project and with Aamir at helm the stakes are that much higher. The only new face was the director Reema Kagti known for Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd.  not the most rememberable movie. The promotions and trailers of Talaash did not reveal much, but neither did it gave a wholesome feeling as some movies do.

Talaash combines a murder mystery, with a emotional back story of Inspector Surjan Shekhawat and his wife Roshni. The movies begins with a thrill and reveals new twists in every scene, meandering so close to perfection but losing my faith at the finish.

 There was a lack of originality when it comes to scripts, but I concede that the premise of Talaash was good and the story seemed well written. What failed the movie was execution, the only strong point of the screenplay was its ability to keep the mystery alive till the very end. Other than that it failed at so many levels, I am horrified Zoya Akhtar such a talented filmmaker failed at seeing the gaping plotholes. Once your start is faulty you will struggle to finish well. Reema Kagti starts of well revealing so much in such little time by interval the intrigue was built and so were my expectations. But as with most movies, without due diligence to the second half the movie crucifies itself. What could have been, what it was.

The music of the movie is completely enamoring taking the story ahead at every juncture combined so well with the rest. The characters were all very well played. Rani was wasted, though the story did not leave much for her to bite into. Aamir hogged the most screen space, and delivered a convincing performance. The most perfect cast was let down by very weak dialogues by Farhan Akhtar clearly he does not hold the talent of his father. In such chilling moments, the characters spoke such sub standard lines that it shocked me. The only character that was convincing in every scene was Nawazuddin Siddiqui, he stole the limelight with his expressive eyes and amazing range.

It is sad to see that an amateur director derailed such an opportunity and what I had to settle with was mediocrity. With Aamir doing one movie a year, I had hoped for so much more.