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Quote sourced from: http://www.animationxpress.com/index.php/latest-news/bhimsain-khurana-an-energetic-and-zealous-man-who-constantly-inspires and https://www.toonz.co/toonz-news.html?id=60

Bhimsain was the lead animator on this film and he directed it alongside Vijaya Mulay, who is also a very well known female director, film historian, educationist, researcher and documentary filmmaker. This film was broadcasted on then satellite television channel called Doordarshan and was part of the three films that Vijaya Mulay was instructed to make on behalf of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). The Education Ministry of India had collaborated with NASA for this experiment.

According to Vijaya Mulay herself: “In the ’60s and ’70s, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, who was looking after India’s space program and was anxious to develop distance communication satellite technology, managed to get NASA to agree to let India use their ATS satellite for one year. India was passing through very rough times at that time, as the United States for strategic reasons, with its Soviet phobia, was more allied with Pakistan than with India. 

Why did NASA then agree to collaborate with us? I and many other Indians presumed that NASA probably agreed because it wanted to do many experiments that needed a large footprint for its satellite elsewhere since their own sky space was taken over by commercial interests. Communist countries, like Soviet Union and China, that had such space were out of the question as the United States considered communists as insufferable. Countries like Brazil and Indonesia that also had the requisite space then had very unstable governments at that time.”

This project was undertaken in partnership with Unicef and Vijaya Mulay was instrumental in making three educational films that touched upon ‘numeracy, literacy and affective sentiments’. Vijaya Mulay was then appointed as the head of the Centre for Educational Technology where upon she decided to complete the last and final film called ‘Ek Anek aur Ekta’. 

She states that, “This is how the film “Ek Anek Aur Ekta” got done. I also experimented with the way the three films were made. “Ek, do” was made in black and white and was based on a song written by me and was all live action. “Na” was shot part live and part animation. The dialogue portion was in black and white, and the animation portion was in color. The third film, “Ek Anek Aur Ekta,” was in color and was an animation film.” 

Not only did Vijaya Mulay script this film but she also directed it, keeping in mind to showcase a girl child as the main lead of the story. This comes as no surprise as she wanted to promote gender equality and women’s rights to education. She was married in 1940 (pre-independence), a time where women weren’t allowed to partake in the same professions or undertake education such as men. She wanted to change this ideology and it is wonderful to take note that she began doing so from the very start of her career.

She quotes,  “A major feature of the patriarchy syndrome has been that only the male characters can be agents of action. The strong, intelligent and noble male acts; the passive woman usually suffers in silence”. 

She was also friends with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who happened to be the very first Female Prime Minister of India. As far as the socio political aspect of this film is concerned, there was a lot going on in India in the 1970s.

Excerpts taken from: https://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/the-cartoon-that-taught-indians-the-meaning-of-many/

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/ek-anek-aur-ekta-how-vijaya-mulays-1974-animated-short-film-reflected-the-optimism-of-a-young-nation-6733521.html

My main focus is going to be on the politics of 1974.

• Students in Gujarat were protesting against the hike in food prices and essential commodities. The middle classes were also unified in supporting them due to concerns over rising inflation
• The state government’s lack of sympathy towards the issues of the masses and rifts within the state itself deepened the unrest felt by them
• The central government was unsupportive and the two governing bodies would often blame each other for the ensuing unrest. 
• The government ended up repressing the situation, enforcing tough measures to control the growing agitation
• The movement solely became concerned with ousting the current state government when the opposing parties got involved
• The students in the higher positions ironically ended up succumbing to corruption 
• They were also divided by their own mutual differences and failed to achieve long lasting positive results
• A similar movement occurred in Bihar, but it was far more violent in comparison
• In the end, President’s Rule was imposed on the state and in the following year a 2 year National Emergency was announced

India also conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, on 18th May in Pokhran and became the 8th in the world to conduct a peaceful nuclear test.

Websites: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/making-every-frame-count/

Academic Sources:

India in 1974: Growing Political Crisis https://www-jstor-org.arts.idm.oclc.org/stable/2643318?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

Indian Cinema and the Bourgeois Nation State: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40277057?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

From Rajah’s and Yogis to Gandhi and Beyond:Images of India in International Films of the Twentieth Century (Vijaya Mulay) book review by Richard John Ascárate: https://muse-jhu-edu.arts.idm.oclc.org/article/589150

For my Year 1 presentation, I decided to focus on the work of Indian animator Bhimsain Khurana (1936-2018).

I actually came across his work while researching Indian animators in general. The minute I heard the song, I remembered my dad singing this to me when I was a little kid! I looked it up immediately and fell in love with the style of the animation and was so happy to find that India had such an influential animator! It is really sad that his work isn’t always readily available on the internet and I found it hard to get a hold of some of his animations that I really wanted to watch. It is sad that we aren’t introduced to such works on TV nowadays because I feel like his work really visualises the cultural and indigenous context of India. The animation has become really commercialised and we are in need of more animators like Bhimsain!

TAKE A LOOK AT THE FILM HERE:

He is widely known as the pioneer of the Indian Animation industry. He worked directly under Ram Mohan (known as the Father of Indian animation), when he undertook work at the Films Division of India.

He actually undertook a diploma in fine art and classical music at Lucknow University and came to Films Division to start his career as a background artist. One of the first films he worked on as a BG artist was called ‘This Our India’. As he was continuing his work in this field, he started taking an interest in animation and learnt a lot from his mentor, Ram Mohan.

He eventually went on to make his own animation films and created his first film called ‘The Climb’ in 1970. It went on to win the Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. I think this film can be interpreted in many ways; for instance I feel that this is about the fast paced world that we are living in. We are never fully satisfied with the things we have or have achieved and keep wanting more; the film suggesting that this ladder that we climb is never ending and that we should make peace and take a moment to actually enjoy how far we have come.

His award winning film ‘The Climb’ actually gave him the inspiration and courage to open his own independent production house called Climb Media. Bhimsain then went on to expand his animation career, with many aspiring and award winning films such as Na, Ek-Do, Munni, Mehmaan, Freedom is a Thin Line, Kahani Har Zamane Ki and Business is People. He made several ad films, including short films on family planning which won him various awards as well.

He eventually took an interest in live action feature films and decided to expand his career as a director and filmmaker. His critically acclaimed live action films such as Gharonda (1976) and Dooriyan (1979) reflect the middle class life and housing crisis in Mumbai. Here is an interview article by Indian actor Zarina Wahab, who was the leading lady in Bhimsain’s film Gharonda:https://www.cinestaan.com/articles/2018/apr/19/12644/coming-from-animation-bhimsain-could-put-down-shots-on-paper-frame-by-frame-zarina-wahab

His film ‘Ek Anek aur Ekta’ translated in English as ‘One, Many and Unity’ is however, going to be my main focal point for this presentation. This is a wonderful film with the overarching theme of Unity in Diversity and sends an important message to each and every citizen to stand together in the face of adversity inspite of coming from a culturally diverse background. This film was produced in 1974 for the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and was mainly aimed at children aged 6-9. It won the National Film Award for the Best Educational Film in India and went on the win the Best Children’s Film Award in Japan. It is considered as India’s best animation in terms of storytelling.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ek_Anek_Aur_Ekta

An interesting fact: Bhimsain was one of the first Indian animators to have been seated as a jury member on the Annecy Animation Film Festival in France and the Ottawa Animation Film Festival in Canada. He was commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada to make two internationally acclaimed films called ‘Locked’ and ‘Trade’; two very touching films about child labour and girl child trade in India. https://www.nfb.ca/film/trade/ https://www.nfb.ca/film/locked/

He also made one of the very first computer generated animated series called ‘Lok Gatha’ which he based on Indian folktales. This project was commissioned by the Children’s Film Society of India. This series won him three National Awards.

https://scroll.in/reel/876076/ace-animator-and-filmmaker-bhimsain-dies-at-81

Bhimsain was also asked to make a 26 episode series called Vartmaan by Doordarshan, which was the first 3D animated series in India. His son Kireet Khurana was the animation director for this series. The series aired on DD National from 1994-95 a prime channel of Doordarshan. It was entirely produced by Climb Media, Bhimsain’s independent production house which is now headed by his son Kireet Khurana (who is also a very famous animator).

‘Vaartman aims to teach children moral lessons on how to control one’s weaknesses. The leading character, Purush (translation: ‘Man’), fights against the evil Sankat (translation: ‘Trouble’) and his own negative emotions, and ultimately wins over his present (Vartmaan).’ – sourced from Wikipedia  

Here is a link to Bhimsain’s website, although it is a shame that most of his earlier work is not easily available to view.

https://bhimsain.com/animations/

Here are also a couple of Interviews I looked at for reference:

Here is the website for Kireet Khurana’s interview on animation, https://www.indiaeducation.net/interviews/kireet-khurana-animator-filmmaker.html