Endeavour
In the World of Animation
Shots from ‘Murgi Keno Mutant’.
As one of the creators of the popular animated series ‘Meena', Mohammed Imam Hussain has little time to ponder on his decision to be an animation artist. He now works at Toonbangla, an animation firm, which began in 2007. He joined the firm as a member of a team of animation artists. One has to make the drawing in stages. “The character, when it moves, has to be depicted as it was done in the films of old. One snap has to follow the next. When shown together, it is like snaps taken in old cinema. In Toonbangla there have been four films about the 'Meena' and 'Mithu', her parrot. In the gist of the stories the characters are Meena, her brother, Raju, the parents, a shop-keeper, who is the villain, there is a young doctor, called Babu Bhai-- these are the basic personalities. Common people are there too. In the different episodes new protagonists are included. Meena's parrot, brother, parents and the 'dadi' (grandmother) who appear repeatedly. The stories depict various child rights' issues that UNICEF works on. This includes childbirth, stopping of corporal punishment in schools' and children with special needs. A character with autism is introduced, for example and people are told how they should behave with him. Meena has in fact, become an icon of the empowerment of the girl child and a large part of its success (with children especially) is the quality of animation used to portray her stories.
Imam has also been part of Toonbangla's hit film MURGI KENO MUTANT (Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens) which has participated in many international film festivals and won awards.
Animation, says Imam, is all about team-work. Making a feature film is difficult for a single individual. Animation, like 'Toonbangla' requires many hands. "Because it needs a thousand to a lakh character drawings and as many background paintings as scenes," he says, "So the director, the writer, concept designer, the background painters, character designer, storyboard artists, animators, cleanup and in-between artist, the background painters, the digital artists and editor, the voice artists, music /sound director ,the production director , the producer etc. Everyone's contribution is very important. It takes time and patience as it is a combination of all art." There are in total sixty artists working in the firm, says the enthusiastic artist.
Imam did his Masters of Fine Art (MFA) and Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Department of Drawing and Painting, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. He has participated in several group art exhibitions (Painting and Print works) as well as cartoon exhibitions (organised by Ummad).
At present Imam works as a Supervising Animation and Preproduction Artist at “Toon Bangla Ltd.”(2D animation studio).
Born in Dhaka but growing up in Chittagong although his village home is Chandpur, Imam spent his childhood immersed in Archie comics and old illustrated classics. From childhood he would let his imagination run wild, shunning conventional ideas and taking incessant pleasure in exploring unchartered territory.
The happy larks of childhood included the Koillar (Koilar) Haat or the bazar, with gifts of money to buy chocolates, chewing gum and pineapple cream biscuits. And of course an endless number of kites. Imam recalls those joyful days of kite-flying, fishing in the 'doba', playing around the boroi. mango and coconut trees, climbing the branches and dangling from them with unimaginable glee. Among the games, which was a part of these boys' passion were cricket and football. After dark, if the power went out, the lamp post lights were always on and allowed the boys to play their favourite games - cricket and football.
'Meena' is somewhat similar to the 'Sisimpur' of Mustafa Manwar and Saidul Haq Juisse, although in the case of the latter, the entire show is run by puppets as directed by the puppeteers.
With 'Meena', says Imam, at first they worked on paper, later graduating to the current 'drawing tablet' that goes straight to the computer, he says, In this manner, the use of the paper and the scanning is left out , he adds. Sometimes, for a second of animation there are 25 for which twelve drawings, with different poses are needed, for display on TV.
Watching films and listening to music are his leisure time preoccupations.
He takes great pride in the fact that 'Toonbangla' participated in a big way at the Cartoon Festival, organised by Bengal Foundation at Bengal Lounge in Gulshan.
A young man in his 30s, Imam has no time for water-colour or acrylic or even oil. But he has no regrets and is quite happy in creating cartoons for TV.
Meena, the ever popular cartoon caracter plays the role of changemaker in society.
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