Why Indian Animation is Lagging Behind? PART TWO

Despite the optimistic and vivid portrait painted by fancy media reports, Indian Animation is still striving at its core. On the surface its the happiest place to be in, but the truth is far stranger than fiction it depicts on the screen. And the most critical part is, hardly anyone is willing to make an effort to enhance its condition to reach a point that will help the industry and animation shows rise above its current state. Sure animation as a business has shown steady growth in past few years due to the availability of a wide range of platforms to reach the intended target audiences. But we need to look beyond the technical and commerce to emerge as original creators at the global stage.

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about how the lack of attention by our viewers in this medium has affected the growth and condition of better homegrown shows (check here). But this is just one of the factors needs to be addressed out of many. So let’s go deeper into this illusionary world of life and explore another but most vital component that must be discussed for the betterment of Indian Animation as a whole, and that component is STORY.

So much has been written about the ingredients of good storytelling, but few organizations can match the standards of soulful storytelling especially in animated films like Pixar and Ghibli Studio. Pixar, on the one hand, has nearly twenty-two principles or rules for impactful storytelling that we see in all of their work. Whereas when it comes to striking a balance between fantasy and reality, Ghibli has been successfully able to cast its spell over audiences from more than four decades. So what is it about Pixar and Ghibli’s storytelling techniques that stands them apart.

Well, it might sound overly complicated process, but its actually something simple, and that is their stories are relatable and focus on the socio-emotional development. They are the masters in creating captivating characters resonating with human emotions and sociological elements. Even in a superficial world the central idea always revolves around basic human sentiments such as humility, compassion, and honor with a definitive motive, and character’s internal journey is given as equal importance as its outer goals. And this vital element makes all the difference in the storytelling process.

Whereas most of the characters we see on Indian animated series lack defining internal motivation. They are good or bad just for the sake of it with no strong driving force behind their undertakings. And it’s bit surprising to see our storytellers failing to depict such essential elements in the land where epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata have already set standards years ago.

Also, Indian animation tends to underestimate the intelligence of our children and ends up oversimplifying the message by neglecting the importance of friendship, honor, empathy, patience and other such values our kids should be learning while growing up. This doesn’t in any way mean poor storytelling, they are still entertaining, but these characters have so much more potential. All we need to do is focus on all aspects of character’s journey and give our kids a chance to sneak into human emotions. All we need to do is show our kids that animation is more than just action, we need to show the space where we see these characters reflect their circumstances without any explanation or dialogue. We need to show them that it isn’t always about happily ever after. Things do not always go the way we want them to. And that’s okay!

Sure comparing Indian animation with Pixar’s and Ghibli’s standard of work will be harsh on us considering the lack of budget, audiences, technology, etc. But creating better stories do not require any of the given factors but merely an intention to do so. The time has come for Indian Animation industry to push its limitation not just in innovation but every aspect of the art that will help it to build a stronger foundation to inspire a new generation of artists.

So what you think about the storytelling techniques used in Indian shows, share your thoughts on comments below.