: The story of Ganesha’s birth, his beheading and then coming alive with an elephant head is known to those who follow Hindu mythology. For artist Nandan Pillai, this story takes a new turn for another divine creation: Gajaangan — a boy with an elephant body.
Dedicating the creation to all special children, their mothers and siblings, Nandan Pillai explores a whole new story in which the boy with elephant body represents all children with special needs and Parvathy devi who identifies her child in her dreams represents all mothers of children with special needs.
Yearning to live the life of a normal child, Gajaangan is helped by his mother in every facet of living, starting from the basics of eating his own food. He has the brains and strength, but needs help to get on in life. The idea came from the mythical dialogue between Ganesha and his mother where the son asks his mother why he has an elephant face, says artist Nandan Pillai.
“So what happened to the discarded head and the body of the elephant?” says the artist who felt that children fed on cartoon characters with superhuman strength could do with a little bit of thinking on how the differently abled Gajaangan searches for his destiny without divine help from his mother.
Nandan Pillai is working on an animation film on the character. An exhibition of the prints of his paintings of his story board, the 3D movie audio release and a dance drama developed on the story will be presented on November 29 at the Fine Arts Hall.
Salabhanjika Studio for Arts and Performances, an institution promoting South Indian classical art forms, will be presenting the dance drama. The costumes for the show have also been designed by Nandan Pillai.
