Manick Sorcar in his fantasyland with a traditional animated creation to the left and laser figures to the right

“Creating miracles is my birthright,” Manick Sorcar breaks into a genial smile.

The eldest son of magician P.C. Sorcar is back from the US to put up a show at Nicco Park. The month-long show, called Lasertoons, will use cutting-edge laser technology to showcase cartoons of Indian origin.

“My father taught us that one can love science and art simultaneously. I am happy I could marry the two,” says Sorcar, who would do the lighting for his father’s show.

Sitting at Indrajaal, the famous magical address in Ballygunge, he details what he has in store for Calcutta, beginning December 23.

The 40-minute show will be divided in two halves. The first half will have traditional animation in The Sage and the Mouse (a gold medal winner at the 36th International Film & Television Festival, New York, based on Punah Mushika Bhabo from Panchatantra) and Rule of 21 (bronze plaque winner at the 51st Columbus International Film Festival, Ohio, based on Sukumar Ray’s poem Ekushe Ain). The second half will be a laser extravaganza, based on rhymes written by Sorcar himself and sung by his daughters when they were infants.

“Ours is basically a family production,” says the artist, who started working two decades ago with the electronic paintbrush to create figures on the computer screen in the basement of his Denver home after a day’s work.

Today, he wields a thin beam of laser to give wings to his fantasies. “A laser beam is so strong that it can cut through iron but reduced to its mildest intensity, it can also help in delicate operations like eye surgery. The laser we use in entertainment falls somewhere in the middle,” Sorcar explains.

His hobby has already fetched him the ILDA Artistic Award in 2005 for the best use of lasers at a live stage performance. “This is the Oscar of the laser industry,” the soft-spoken man smiles.

What had clicked at the contest in Italy, he feels, was the moment at the end of the show when he set the stage on fire using laser beams.

The land of his domicile may have taught him the technology but all of Sorcar’s figures owe their origin to his roots. “Indian folklore has so much to give to the world,” he says, gazing lovingly at a still of Deepa & Rupa, based on Sukhu-Dukhu from Thakumar Jhuli, which beat Sesame Street and a Hannah-Barbera production at a New York festival.

What started as an effort to make his daughters aware of their roots is building into a massive corpus of animation on the East meeting West. The show at Nicco Park will show many young Tom & Jerry or Harry Potter fans that there is much in our own closet worth “toon”-ing into.