Pandit Vinay Chandra Maudgalya wrote the famous patriotic song celebrating the unity in diversity that is India — “ Hind desh ke niwaasi sabhi jan ek hain, rang roop vesh bhasha chaahe anek hain ” (Indians are one despite the heterogeneity of colour, look and language).
However, for an entire generation of viewers, growing up on Doordarshan, it was Bhimsain who brought alive the thought and feeling of togetherness intrinsic to the song through his animation, design and production work in Ek Anek Aur Ekta (1974), a short film directed by Vijaya Mulay for NCERT’s Centre for Education Technology. The film is a prime example of how abstract concepts, causes, messages and life lessons can be simply, engagingly and effectively communicated through music and visuals. Veteran filmmaker and animation pioneer Bhimsain, who passed away on Tuesday in Mumbai, at the age of 81, was an expert at it.
Like quite a lot of film personalities of the times, Bhimsain’s roots were in Pakistan. Born in Multan in 1936, Bhimsain Khurana moved to Lucknow after the Partition. Though there was always an inclination towards the arts and he did study fine arts and classical music at the Lucknow University, Bhimsain honed his artistic talent on the job, while working as a background painter at the Cartoon Film Unit of Films Division and later at Prasad Studios.He learnt animation under the legendary Ram Mohan, considered the father of Indian animation.
The first film he made independently — The Climb (1971) — won the Silver Hugo award at the Chicago Film Festival. The film’s title also gave the name to his production house — Climb Films. Then on there was no looking back — films like Na , Ek-Do , Munni , Freedom is a Thin Line, Mehmaan, Kahani Har Zamne Ki and Business is People followed .
Bhimsain’s career was marked by eclecticism — shorts, documentaries, TV series, features, animation and ads. It was a versatile innings for Bhimsain at the movies as he rode the “middle-of-the-road cinema” wave of the 70s and the 80s. It was also the heady time when the State nurtured, supported and helped in the spread of good cinema.
He is credited for the first Indian computer-generated animation series Lok Gatha (1992) that alone won him three national awards of his huge haul of 16. His last project was the TV film Rajjobaji (2004). Earlier this year, a retrospective of his animation films was held at Films Division as part of the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF).
It was his pioneering work in animation and films like Dooriyan (1979) and Gharaonda (1977) that came to define him. He was a master at various animation techniques but the training in music meant that his work, be it animation or live action, was also marked by great music, scored by the likes of Jaidev and Vasant Desai.
From house-hunting ( Gharaonda ) to family planning ( Munni ), to superstition ( Choti Badi Baatein), his works also touched upon several significant issues. Dooriyan focused on the effect of marital discord on a child’s mind. Gharaonda, adapted for screen by Gulzar, from a short story by Dr. Shankar Shesh, was marked with a rare poignancy as it showed how love, morals and ethics can get side-stepped in the urgency to find home in the city of Mumbai (then Bombay).
The two songs, with music by Jaidev and lyrics by Gulzar, summed up the emotional arc of the film — from the companionship and hope of “ Do deewane sheher mein, ” to the loneliness and despair of “ Ek akela is sheher mein ”; the search for the home, however, lingers on. Even today, no other film comes close to reflecting the house hunting woes of Mumbaikars as does Gharaonda and its “ Abodana dhoondhte hain ik aashiyana dhoondhte hain ” song. And Ek Anek Ekta message continues to resonate even in these polarised times.
