Animation

Paper cutting art and animation
An experimentation in creative and personalised movie making.

I am an artist who makes paper cuttings and I wanted to animate my paper cuttings. The animated papercutting and paper foldings are not only interesting, but extremely creative, as personalised frame by frame movement is shot to create the illusion of an animated strip.

The creative experimentation is innovative and individualistic in style and coreography.

There are extremely low budget movies made in a small studio in a village in Himalayan foot hills for the sake of the joy of creation.

I am sharing this joy with you through this website.

These are products of original creative experimentation and have added a new dimension to animation movie making. Paper cutting animations are unconventional and are designed purposely in way that they look like paper cuttings even in the movies. The unconventional aspect of paper cutting animation places them in different category in the field of animation film making. Despite the limitations of this form of art immense amount of creativity in diverse moods with direct emotional involvement of the artist is possible in these animations.

In September 1998 at Alliance Francaise, Calcutta and in November 1998 at Alliance Francaise, Chandigarh, the rush prints of 16mm animation films made by myself and my team was screened. In March 1999 Zee TV channel showed a small portion of such an animation made by myself, and this records me as the first person to use paper cuttings made without any drawing or tracing to produce an animation movie. Some of these animation movies are examples of successful incorporation of art-work that have been created with traditional Indian technique in the field of modern technology.

Animation films made by Prabal Pramanik and his team
List of films and something about them

The Magic Scissors
The Cockroach and the Lizard
St. George and the Dragon
The Enchanted Palace
The Flight
The Animal Concert
The Bull fight
The Animal film company
Mahishasuramardini Durga
Radha Krishna Leela, Hari prema gagane chira raka
Prem Setu
Hat

The Magic Scissors

There is a man who lives in a house in the hills. People say that he has magic scissors. Some say, though the pair of scissors look ordinary, they have magic in them, as paper cutting pieces made with that pair of scissors seem to become alive. In this world of paper cutouts come alive, the man with the magic scissors goes on playing with paper and scissors. Cranes fly up, birds chirp and hop about mice scurry away and bunnies play about. Have a peep into this magic world created with the magic scissor.

The Flight

Somewhere in another world lived a young boy. He lived in a house with his mother and father and went to school but the little boy did not feel as happy as he would have liked to be. He thought that most people around him knew more about his life and his future than he did himself.

In the house his mother said, "you will be a doctor when you grow up as doctors are respected and make a lot of money. On the other side his father would say, " you have to study hard and become a lawyer, so that you can become rich. The little boy thought all this talk-too confusing and did not understand why he would have to be a doctor or a lawyer when he had nothing to do with this sort of work.

The little boy went to school with a big heavy bag of books and papers. He had to hurry on. He wanted to stop and look at the flowers by the fence. He wanted to follow the butterflies that flew over the hedges but he had no time, he walked on so that he will not be late for school.

At school in the class all the boys had to listen to the teacher or at least pretend to do so. They were told to study hard so that they would perhaps become successful in future. Ofcourse, no one knew anything about the distant future or what really success is. The little boy sat in the last row and looked at the birds chirping on the window. "The birds are happy"– he thought. "Are the birds successful?"– he asked himself. "You boy in the last row, what are you looking at! pay attention to your studies the teacher scolded him. The birds flew away and the little boy was unhappy.

It was a Sunday morning. The little boy jumped out to play.

Field, trees, sky and butterflies and a dog all in that world. The little boy did not want success did not want to be rich. He just wanted to be free from all those thoughts. He started flying his kite. The kite went higher and higher. Higher than all the thoughts of money and success. Higher than all the people who knew more his life than himself, and a sense of freedom thrilled the little boy. He let the kite fly off free. The kite flew off but the little boy danced with joy for he was happy at last.

The bull fight

Two bulls became angry with each other. Each one of them wanted the possession of a green field. Each bull wanted the green field only for himself and did not want any one else to have a blade of grass from the field. So the bulls started fighting and they fought on.

The bulls fought on till they realized that there was enough grass in the field for both of them to be satisfied with. So the both the bulls made peace and were happy in the green field, with enough grass for each of them.

The animal film company

Three bears opened a film company, and hired a couple of monkeys as spot boys. The mouse said he was good at directing and the cock was supposed to read the script. The fox got hero's part in the cinema, and the cat wanted to be the heroine, and then– the film company started, perhaps in future you will see films made by the animal film company.

The animal concert

Frogs and mice dance to the music of nature. Grass hopper and lizard provide company.

The Enchanted Palace

An oriental palace of filigree lattice work with fountain, peacock and mysterious people. This piece features a unique dance scene and is of soft and romantic beauty.

Hari prema gagane chira raka

This presentation is entirely in traditional form with the spiritual philosophy. It is eternal moonlit night and Radha, the devotee, is going on her celestial tryst to meet Krishna. A "Sakhi" tells her the way, and "Samsar", as a little fawn tries in vain to deter her. She moves with her thoughts of Krishna symbolized as a peacock. Radha meets Krishna at last and joins in the cosmic dance of eternity.

St. George and the dragon

This feature shows the classic battle between good and evil. In fire, St. George fights and kills the Dragon.

Mahishasuramardini Durga

This is an animation presentation of the mythological legend of Devi Durga killing the Asura Mahishasura. The Gods headed by Brahmha meet Shiva and Vishnu to complain about Mahishasura who had driven them away. Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahmha join their powers to invoke the Adya Shakti Mahamaya as female warrior form. Mahishasura's soldiers fight with Devi and her companion the lion. They are killed by Devi and the lion. So, Mahishasura comes to fight Devi Durga in different forms, first as a buffalo, then as a lion, then as a elephant and then again as a buffalo. When the buffalo's head is cutoff by the Devi, and the Asura half emerges from it. Then the Asura killed. Gods and Sages rejoice and praise Devi Durga.

The cockroach and the lizard

This is a short drama of life and death in suspense when the hunter and hunted manoeuvre in tactical moves. The lizard finally catches the cockroach.

PREM SETU

The movie “Prem setu” accompanies the poetry book of that title by poet Rakesh Nudrat. The book is on Radha Krishna Lila and presents beautiful poems in Hindi. This unique visual form of a poetry book includes interesting animation portions on the story of Radha and Krishna. The movie creates a romantic atmosphere with refreshing lyrics.

TO VIEW ANIMATION MOVIE CLIPS
MADE WITH PAPER CUTTING &
PAPER FOLDING ART OF
USTAD KALAKAR PRABAL PRAMANIK
CLICK HERE