Hear the masters of animation

The Godrej India Culture Lab is hosting an Indo-Japanese animation talk, titled Method in the Madness, featuring Japanese artist collective Saigo No Shudan and Professor Sekhar Mukherjee from NID

If you are curious to gain an Indo-Japanese perspective on the world of animation, head to Godrej India Culture Lab’s latest Friday Funda session. The joint presentation, titled Method in the Madness, will feature speakers from Saigo No Shudan, a Japanese artist collective that creates videos using hand-painted animation and stop motion, and Professor Sekhar Mukherjee, head of the animation department of National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

An animation still from Saigo No Shudan

The session will include case studies, clips and stills of the works of animation artists in India and Japan and explore how they relate to each other. Speaking about the event that is being organised in collaboration with the Japan Foundation, Professor Mukherjee says, “I will talk about the importance of organising and promoting an artistic animation festival from India. The talk will also focus on the Chitrakatha International Student Animation Festival, which I direct from NID and is held every two years.”

Design collective Saigo No Shudan

Mukherjee observes that animation took off almost at the same time in both India and Japan as both share a culture of theatre and scroll painting. “Post-World War, Japan turned into a giant in animation and comics thanks to visionaries like Osamu Tezuka and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. In the Japanese animation industry, the eco-system was set efficiently whereas the Indian animation industry grew in a scattered manner and remained in the shadow of American influence.

Shekhar Mukherjee

There was not much awareness, except in Mumbai and Chennai (due to the film industry) and Ahmedabad (due to NID). However, in the recent decade, Indian animation is showing a lot of hope due to experiments in TV commercials and arrival of affordable digital technology,”
he adds.

Mai Oita from Saigo No Shundan, explains that the collective will share their ideas, and body of work, for the first time outside Japan. Interestingly, most of Japanese animation work is mostly hand-drawn which sets it apart from the West.

“Animation is much loved by the Japanese, especially thanks to the Japanese Manga (comics and cartoons) culture. One of the milestones for Japanese animation was Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) winning the Japan Academy Prize, Golden Bear award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature,” states Oita.

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