Nothing succeeds like success.

Years and years have passed with the Indian animation fraternity trying to get animation into the Indian mainstream and finally here is the big chance. Hanuman.

A Sahara One Motion Pictures’ presentation of a Percept Picture Company production in association with Silvertoons, Hanuman, (the 2D animated Indian feature made completely in India directed by an Indian and animated by Indian artists with an Indian super hero as its subject and lead) looks set to bring Box Office glory to its makers.

Even though its just been 10 days since Sahara released the movie with 150 prints across India, early indications are that the movie's good fortunes are set to spur a wave of Indian animation feature film making.

Speaking to Animation 'xpress, Sahara One Motion Pictures COO Sandeep Bhargava said,"The response to Hanuman is fabulous and is becoming stronger every passing day with first week collections averaging around 85%. Keeping in mind that the vacations have just begun we foresee a continued good showing for the next few weeks"

"At the end of the day it is very satisfying to see an investment like this succeed and we
will surely consider other animation films because of this success" said the beaming Bhargava.

No good content can translate into good business without strategic marketing and promotion. Sahara's being a media conglomerate has helped the animated feature to be marketed well across the country. The activities included School contact drives in 500 schools across 20 cities. On ground fests, presence at Ram Leela's etc.

Another innovation was its tie up with Cartoon Network and Pogo where the first 3 days of the movie's release saw an animated interstitial with Baby Hanuman asking kids to come and watch the movie. This interstitial played every ten minutes.

"The drivers to the film have been kids. There have been instances of parents calling up and asking to hold 50 seats so as to celeberate their kids birthdays and so on. People are coming to see this because it is Hanuman and kids relate best to animation" said Bhargava.

Thanks to the encouraging response, Sahara is working out an extension of the home entertainment (Rights are with Delhi based Eagle Video) window (usually 4 weeks) by an additional 2 weeks. The conglomerate is also in the process of getting its L&M plans in action.

Baby Hanuman who occupies the first 30 minutes of screentime is extremely endearing with his mischiveous mannerisms and cute innocent looks.

The grown up Hanuman too has been well designed with a robust, regal presence and is greatly enhanced by Mukesh Khanna's voice. Other well designed impressive characters include Pavana, Narada (who inspite of his occasional appearance looks interesting), Kumbhakran, Vibheeshan and Jambhavan.

The most beautiful moments of the film occur during Baby Hanuman's interaction with the Sun God and the episode where Pavan takes away all wind from the earth. Another interesting episode is the one when Lord Shiva assuming the form of a Madari takes Baby Hanuman (in the form of a Circus Monkey) to Ayodhya to meet Lord Ram then in his childhood.

On another level, the film also reveals quite a few lesser known facts about the Monkey God which help in holding audience interest through the already familiar story line in the second half.

Amongst other strong points of the movie are the imposing and rhythmic soundtrack and background score. Technically the post production and titling sequences are impressive.

Above all the greatest novelty value of the film is that it is India's first fully indegeniously created animated feature.