Shillong, Feb. 13: Meghalaya's first animated movie - U Syiem (The King) - will be screened from next month with the aim of 'bringing history back and educating the world about our culture'.
U Syiem is a computer generated animated film, and the inspiration behind the movie, created by a band of friends under the name of Cosmic Clusters, who are mostly professionals based in Calcutta, was U Tirot Sing Syiem.
It took three years to make the film.
'The film explores the life of legendary freedom fighter U Tirot Sing who fought the East India Company against the oppression of his people. The controversial treaty number LXXXIV was the turning point that led to the Awakening Day, April 4, 1829, transforming the young leader into a war commander through the tactic of guerrilla warfare one for history to remember,' the synopsis of the film states.
The crew includes director and writer Ban Casper Mawlong who has a decade of experience in the animation industry.
Many of Mawlong's works feature in Cartoon Network India and he is also involved with Canadian animation and VFX Films.
Another is 3D generalist M. Janai N. Talang, who has worked as a freelancer for different advertising agencies and VFX production houses in India, contributing to art design concepts, logos, live action films.
There is also musician Gregory Syiem who was trained by Trinity London and who is well versed in the field of recording, mixing and composing orchestral music and others.
According to Mawlong, the challenges it takes to make a film on the life of a warrior like U Tirot Sing is 'exceedingly difficult' to present, especially through the medium of animation.
'We as a team tried our best in the areas of script, storyboard, animation, voice-overs, visual effects as well as music production to bring forth the personality and the story of his life in one hour. We have developed our own cost-effective production pipeline for a shoestring budget (of Rs 33 lakh),' he said.
While the story is inspired by actual events, he said, certain characters, characterisation, locations and dialogues were fictionalised for the purpose of dramatisation without the intent to hurt the sentiments of any person, living or dead.
On the purpose of the movie, Mawlong said, 'As animation is a very powerful medium in delivering a message and also educate an audience both young and old, the animated movie will spread the awareness of our culture and history of our tribe to the world. The dubbing is in English with Khasi subtitles.'
He also said that U Tirot Sing would 'once again become an icon and hero for our children: and might replace other cartoon heroes given the fact that the movie's 'quality, standard and benchmark are much higher and also comparable with international animation'.
The movie will be screened at U Soso Tham auditorium on March 5 for invitees while the commercial screening will be on March 6 and 7. Tickets will be available for Rs 150 and Rs 200.
It will also be screened in many schools in Meghalaya at a very low price. There will be a free screening for underprivileged children in the state.
'The core idea and concept of the movie is bringing history back and educating the world about our culture. As this movie is specially designed for a universal age audience, we invite both the young and old to witness history coming to life,' Mawlong said.
