Whenever he had an encounter with the computer, he was enveloped by a dash of magical power; whenever he faced an interesting situation, his mind could envisage, simultaneously, an animated version of the same; whenever he looked at his over-enthusiastic cat, he could see his new hero; whenever the world was lost in the enigma of a new craze, he had discovered a new idea.
Animated start
Video making and animation began to define Santhosh Chris. And what followed was Laughing Games/Jackbliss — the title of their video series — that has acquired over two million views on the most popular videos' channel, Youtube, that stemmed from his zeal and the intense passion of his young, dynamic team comprising Bharadwaj Sundar, Anand Kumar and Sathish Kumar Gunasekaran.
How does it feel to be proposed by Youtube for a partnership? One must ask the foursome, who has made it there in their early twenties and are yet dissatisfied. “We have miles to go,” claims Chris. Sometimes, passion serves as the strongest drive. It was this drive that led them to uploading videos on Youtube since 2007, while they were still feeling their way through video making and animations. “The videos acquired over 55,000 views on Youtube and the rest as they say is history,” says Bharadwaj, with humility. Before their association with Youtube, the group was associated with various other video sites like Dailymotion, Newgrounds and Albinoblacksheep. Their collaboration with these sites became the means through which they gained the exposure they needed to take Laughing Games/Jackbliss to the next level.
Their videos promise to satisfy not only your humour quotients but also to alter your ethical brain. “Making sense out of nonsense is the central idea for all our videos,” says Anand. They underline issues such as racism, mentally retarded children, environmental facets and other issues that reflect present day society. Their video against racism, “Mario back to the start”, gained much popularity and won them many accolades.
Issue-based
“We make videos on current issues, so that they get more exposure. When the World Cup was round-the-corner, we created a video that predicted our win with the same last ball that added six runs to our score and led to our victory. The response was overwhelming,” says Sathish.
Their series, “Cat versus Mankey”, that portrays a tiff between a puppet, who is very egoistic and a cat, who is humble, is sprawling on the internet like wild fire. “Mankey is the new internet celebrity,” proclaims Bharadwaj. They have made their presence felt at several film festivals across the country, some of which include Film Booth, an international film festival conducted at Delhi, festivals at Spaces and British Council, Chennai.
Apart from working on Laughing Games/Jackbliss, all four are involved in different jobs in varied arenas of the media industry. They work this out over weekends, into the nights, with computers at their disposal, commitment and passion as their paraphernalia, each other as inspiration and steaming cups of hot coffee to rejuvenate their senses; with every night carving the trajectory to reach yet another milestone...
Payal is a MA Communication student at M.O.P. Vaishnav College For Women.
