BENGALURU: We all know one person in our lives who is a great storyteller – a grandparent, a friend, or the neighbourhood gossip – someone who can weave fact and fiction together to tell tales so riveting that you forget to care about the difference. This is the kind of man PNK Panicker, filmmaker Suresh Eriyat’s father, is in the national award-winning animated short film Kandittund! (Seen It!).
Expertly weaving together folklore, hearsay and his own imagination, Panicker’s charming ghost stories have captured the hearts of young and old alike, garnering over two million views on YouTube and nearly as much on Instagram since its release three years ago. “The response that we received for Kandittund! is overwhelming because we didn’t expect young people and teenagers to enjoy it so much.
They probably have very distant memories of their grandparents who narrated such stories. Their ways of storytelling are pretty reminiscent of the times when everybody used to stay together, and there was a very cosy, comfortable bonding that used to exist,” says Suresh.
A graphic novel titled PNK Panicker’s Ghost Stories (`545; Tulika Books), based on the film, was recently launched at Founder Suresh Eriyat and Executive Producer Nilima Eriyat’s Studio Eeksaurus’ retrospective exhibition held in Bengaluru recently. The retrospective, first-ever in the country, featuring 15 years of the studio’s work, screenings of its short films and interactive exhibits, aimed to give an inside look into the world of animation.
Nilima says, “It was just amazing to see how local crowds came in thinking that it’s an exhibition on animation, at best, cartoons. But then they realised that there was so much more to making an animated film – the time, effort, money, patience, perseverance, and, of course, the understanding of making a film that any live-action film requires – the story, lensing, sound, music that is no different and perhaps even more difficult than creating live-action films.”
According to Nilima, despite the popularity of Ghibli films and anime among kids and young adults, mainstream audiences are still reluctant to engage with animation. “If you still ask the masses, an animation film is first a cartoon. They will think about it five times before buying a ticket and going to watch it in the theatre or even on OTT. They would probably watch it if recommended, but as a natural choice, it would still be the second choice. So I think the attempt here, with studios like us, filmmakers like Suresh, and young directors who work in with us, is to popularise animation.”
Making a foray into mainstream cinema, Studio Eeksaurus has also animated a sequence for the film Kalki 2898 AD, a moving depiction of inhuman events that have plagued the earth throughout history. “Our ambition is to create feature films in animation. It’s time that we took this medium to a larger platform where people see local Indian stories unfold in the medium of animation on the big screen, that will really make a difference for Indian animation,” says Suresh.
Nilima further adds, “The bigger intent is to change the perception that India is great for outsourcing work but can’t pull off entertaining, well-made animated films that can be a Box Office hit. We have the potential, the intelligence, and the know-how, of telling animated stories effectively.”