Shiva grows up

Tripura -- The Three Cities of Maya doesn't dumb down the battle of good vs evil to a conflict between white gods and dark-skinned asuras. As the filmmakers tell us, mythology is deeper than that

Tripura -- The Three Cities of Maya doesn't dumb down the battle of good vs evil to a conflict between white gods and dark-skinned asuras. As the filmmakers tell us, mythology is deeper than that

You mayu00a0have seen it on Cartoon Networku00a0-- the tale of Shiva locked in a fierce battle to destroy the powerful kingdom of Tripura ruled by asuras Tarakaksha, Kamlaksha and Vidyunmali. And if you haven't caught it yet, the fact that Tripurau00a0-- The Three Cities of Maya just bagged the 2011 FICCI Award for Best Animated Film, might get you interested the next time it airs.

A still from the film

The first ever Animation Awards in India, the FICCI Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards were held last month, at which Tripura, a joint project between Cartoon Network, Amar Chitra Katha Media and Animagic Studios, took top honours in its category; the home video segment.

Naturally, the people involved are delighted. Chetan Sharma, co-founder and director of Animagic, sees it as a vindication of over two years of hard labour.

"We saw an opportunity to create a new work which would treat mythology in non-clich ufffdd terms and create a template for a new kind of Indian animation film for television. The award is a justification of that."

Chetan Sharma working on a frame

Sharma rues the step motherly treatment given to animation in India. "For most people animation still means dogs or mice. They think of cartoons just for kids. Most people are not aware that India can produce mature animated contentu00a0-- films in which characters and the story are taken seriously enough to not be riddled with cliches."u00a0

Tripura has won praise even from David Freeman, noted Hollywood screenwriter and a jury member, who said it was not a cliched mythological tale.

"Even though one of the films in competition was a high-end CG film produced in the US with all the latest glitz, Tripura stood out because it the spiritual arc of the story was convincing and complete," Sharma gleefully quotes him, and added that Freeman cited kinship in that aspect to the 1984 Karate Kid and Avatar.

So how exactly is it different? For one, the asuras and devas are not black and white, respectively. "We've taken away usual manners of spiritual expression. The war between good and evil is a metaphor of those forces battling each other in your soul.

When we show Indra accessing Vishnu, he meditates. There are subtle cues. The chakras in his body light up, and he is transported into another spiritual dimension."

This is unlike regular mythological animation, where he would climb a mountain and pray to a God who would descend from a tacky cloud.u00a0Animation that doesn't insult your intelligence or limit itself to cartoonish content for children? Bring it on.