Bachelor of Visual Arts and presently pursuing Post-Graduation in Masters in Design-(Animation) from IDC,IIT-Bombay, Govind Janardhan’s 4 minute 43 second animated short ‘A Glimpse of Happiness’ has bagged the Best Animation Award (Student Category) at Noida Intl. Film Festival’14 that was announced on 9 February. Also, the Best Institutional Production award went to IDC, IIT-Bo
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Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about this win, Govind, says, “Thrilled with this win! I thank my project guide ‘Prof. Shilpa Ranade,
teachers, parents and friends for making this short possible.”
Spotlighting on the concept of Loneliness in old age, the story line of this 2D short revolves around an old man, who stays all alone in a pent house on top of a five story building and keeps waiting for someone to come in the rented room, which is adjacent to his room.
Elaborating more on the story line, Govind says, “The pent house is splited into two half rooms, one portion where the old man lives and the other room which is for rent. For years, people stay for short durations and leave, but the old man is still there left all alone.”
“One fine day a boy came to stay in the adjacent room. Though in the beginning, the boy shows reluctance to talk and interact with the old man, later they become close to each other. Days and months pass… and the day arrived for the boy to leave. Just before he leaves he gives a memento to the old man, the old man continues to live with the memories and keep waiting for next someone to come.” Adds further
Govind has created the short in seven month’s time, and feels that Old age is an important phase in one’s life and it’s this period when people become dependent and require all means of care and support (both emotional and physical) from their family.
For making the character relate well with the real life one, Govind did pay visits to old age homes to understand the kind of life lived there.
When asked about why Govind went ahead with this concept, he shares, “I found good scope in the story for making it into an animation movie. “
“With the look, feel, I could exaggerate height of the building where the old man stays (in the story), depicting the feeling that the old man is completely departed from the society. Through the stylized 2D hand drawn animation, I believed I could achieve a different way in communicating the story.” Shares further
At present, Govind is working on a Social Awareness Animation (Student project) for Centre of Social Media Innovations for Communities (COSMIC) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore on the topic Dengue and Malaria.
“Creating animated short movies are more challenging compared to full length as the concept needs to be communicated with a limited time span.”, concludes, Govind