CINTERNATIONAL INTERVIEWS

presents Manick Sorcar

To see Manick Sorcar's live action/animations is to be transported to a universe of wisdom and love. I viewed DEEPA AND RUPA, THE SAGE AND THE MOUSE, and THE WOODCUTTER'S DAUGHTER at the Denver International Film Festival, and was elevated to that universe. Ron Henderson, director of the DIFF would agree, as he programmed Manick's work as the first video entry into DIFF. Sorcar's work is, however, not a stranger to film festivals: DEEPA AND RUPA: A FAIRY TALE FROM INDIA won the "Gold Plaque" award at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the "Golden Eagle" at the C.I.N.E. in Washington, D.C. The New York International Film Festival named THE WOODCUTTER'S DAUGHTER a finalist in the Children's Program. THE SAGE AND THE MOUSE won the "Gold Medal" at the New York Film Festival. DIFF director Ron Henderson with Manick Sorcar family. The Woodcutter's Daughter Like his father before him, Manick Sorcar is a magician, but of a different sort. Manick's father performed acts of magic on stage for an audience. Manick transforms the everyday into a stage, and we, the viewer of Sorcar's ani-magic, become mesmerized. I felt I was morphed into a wise and loving entity through viewing DEEPA AND RUPA. See Rupa talking to the cow on her journey to see the "old woman in the moon."   Sorcar's animation/live action treatment of Indian fairy tales projects the uniqueness of Sorcar's vision: that in an effort to express his own artistic sensibilities, he includes not only his family, but also the larger universe of humanity. Sorcar's wife Shikha and his daughters play an integral role at all stages of work, from the research, through to acting in the productions. Sorcar is invited to speak to groups of young people at middle schools and high schools. On these occasions he likes to be accompanied by his family. The young students are thereby doubly impacted. They have the opportunity to meet the very people they have just experienced on screen. This immediacy gives truth to Manick's message, that whatever the young viewer may hold as a private vision can actually be produced and shared with others. Manick produces the films in his home basement lab, which consists of a bank of computers, and a "blue room". The blue room is a space contiguous with Manick's lab. The walls and floor are painted in chroma key blue. The effect of the chroma key blue is to make visible only the actor placed in front of it. It is as though the actor is etched in space. The filmed tales, the actors acting, are staged against the awesome blue environment. The blue backdrop allows Manick to place any background of his choice behind the actors. The blue room technique is a fitting metaphor for Sorcar's concern to address his Indian heritage, placed against a background of mainstream life in America. Immersed in viewing Rupa's journey on the way to the "old woman in the moon", stopping to help the cow, the horse, and the banyon tree along the way, in the irreality of live action within animation, I experienced a sense of isolation in a space apart from the environment. It may be argued that this sense of isolation in space is universal to the cinematic experience. However, with the curious mixture of India and interstellar travel--Rupa hops on a cloud which takes her to the moon--the detachment as well as the environs are more starkly etched than with more conventional cinema experience. I could have been Rupa dipping in the moon pool, surfacing re-cast in exquisite apparel and jewels that replaced the previous rags. In DEEPA AND RUPA, Rupa is the good step-sister; Deepa is the bad. When the head of the combined household dies, Rupa and her mother are put out onto the street by Deepa's mother. Deepa and her mother remain in the grand house, retaining the former eloquent style of living and of wealth. Rupa and her mother barely scratch out a living by weaving. The Old Woman visits the greedies, Deepa and her mother. One day a wind blows away the only bit of cotton that Deepa and her mother have. They are unable to produce anything to exchange for food. They must get that bit of cotton back. Rupa sets out to fetch it. Being a kind and gentle soul, she stops along the way to help the cow, the horse, and the banyon tree, all of whom ask her for small favours which she grants. She finally gets that lift to the moon on a cloud. The Old Woman in the Moon welcomes her, treating her to the fabulous dip in the magic pool. Rupa shows her true colours by dipping only once, and taking only one box, as instructed by Old Woman, aka wisdom. Rupa is rewarded with even more jewels and finery.   Deepa and her mother ask how Rupa came to have so much. Deepa is sent to replicate Rupa's successful journey. However, greed sees to it that Deepa dishonours herself by dipping more than once in the pool, as well as grabbing a second box on her way out of the temple. Deepa scorns the cow, the horse, and the banyon tree on her way to the moon. She is scorned by them upon her return. At home, her mother is awestruck by the fortune Deepa has grabbed. Unfortunately for the mean and the greedy, that second box contained the spirit of the Old Woman. The spirit comes out of the box, and blows their house down.     Visit Manick's website: http://www.manicksorcar.com       Copyright 1998 Cinternational For more information, please email us at cinternational.com