Bhil artist and a filmmaker share insights into an animated short

A still from Hum Chitra Banate Hai We Make ImagesAs a parched rooster tries to stretch its neck and crow from a roof in the trailer of the animation film Hum Chitra Banate Hai We Make Images our eyes are transfixed on its body patterned with myriad multihued dots that pulsate and glow with every movement The frame shifts to a village setting where we see characters mdash men women deer and goats mdash fighting over water glowing with similar dotted patternsNina SabnaniSketch like a BhilA painting in motion the trailer showcases a tale narrated by Raghubir Yadav of a community starved for water and how a wise Badwaji shaman suggests that they paint trees on their walls which solves the problem In under nine minutes the film to be screened at MAMI tomorrow explains the origin of painting being integral to the Bhil tribe of Madhya PradeshBhil artist Sher Singh at workDirected by artistfilmmaker Nina Sabnani known for awardwinning animated films like Tanko Bole Chhe The Stitches Speak and Baat Wahi Hai Hum Chitra Banate Hai Hindi with English subtitles has been produced by IIT Bombay where Sabnani is a professorPages from the picture book A Bhil StorySimilar to how she collaborated with Kutch artisans for Tanko Bole Chhe Sabnani roped in Sher Singh a known Bhil artist from Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh to create the art for the film ldquoThis approach allows me to access lesserknown oral traditions that are still alive I met Sher Singh at a craft mela in Orissa and invited him to IIT for a workshop In the process of learning how to make the art we also realised the importance of painting in their livesrdquo she sharesSabnani travelled with Singh to Jhabua and Bhopal to gain insight into the Bhil life and their beliefs For instance he told me that each dot represents an ancestor and that the idea of painting dots came from the corn they grow informs the filmmakerArt for natureSteeped in rituals tradition and symbolism Bhil art is connected to nature and used as form of prayer and for healing Thirtyyearold Singh who learnt the art from his mother Bhuri Bai when he was just seven says We are connected to land and the paintings feature mythological characters along with trees animals birds celestial objects like the sun and moon and scenes from festivals These are present in the film tooGlow the dotsWhile traditionally the tribe practised it as Pithora art ritual paintings on walls today artistes use paper for canvas For the project Singh offered over 60 paintings from his oeuvre and created works depicting cornfields a barrellike instrument called dhak and the character of shamanIn order to avoid distortion Sabnani and her team of animators Piyush Verma Ashwin Vasudevan and Shyam Sundar Chatterjee scanned the paintings and worked for over four months to convert them into moving images with glow bulblike effect et al using software like Photoshop After Effects and Final Cut Pro The film features background score by music director Rajat Dholakia who heard several Bhil songs to maintain authenticity In production for over two years the film was completed this June and has won awards at the IndieAniFest Festival in Seoul and Signs Festival in Kerala before arriving in Mumbai ldquoI never imagined that my paintings would be animated Irsquove seen the film and it is surrealrdquo gushes Singh over a disturbed phone line from Madhya PradeshOn October 23 5 pmAt Audi 4 PVR Phoenix Lower Parel as part of MAMI festival