This animated short film traces the 100-year-old journey of CSMVS

A screengrab from the animated short on CSMVS. Pic Courtesy/CSMVS Mumbai

A century is a long time in which cities can fall, rise and change completely. With a city like Mumbai, this experience is multiplied exponentially. The story of one such Mumbai institution, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), finds its way through well-researched animated short film on the museum's YouTube channel.

Vandana Prapanna, senior curator and concept designer for the video, tells us that animation was the quickest way to catch public attention. "The history of the museum is also about so many facts and dates. We did not want it to turn into a lecture," she elaborates.

Anirban Majumder

The video was to be a longer film, but Prapanna chose to keep it short for a better reach. "A 100-year-long journey is not easy to compile in a five-minute film. Since people always want to know the milestones, we edited it down to the key events," she emphasises.

The task of keeping it interactive and lively fell to artist and researcher, Anirban Majumder, a former student of museology at CSMVS. Using the archival maps and prints of the city, including the first design submission of the museum's structure, Majumder unified storytelling and history. He says, "I took the elements of these paintings from the archive and used it to tell the story and journey into the past."

Vandana Prapanna

The short video is the beginning of an evolution for the museum. "The Children's Museum has also come up with a short film. We are planning to develop more short films to reach out to audiences," Prapanna promises.

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