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.