After two decades, ‘Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama’, continues to remain a landmark in the epic’s retelling
It was way ahead of its time, and with the collaborative efforts of Yugo Sako and Ram Mohan, the movie could have changed the course of animation in India.
As Bharatiya Janata Party enters its second ruling term, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again coming to take his seat, mob lynching in the name of religion continues in various parts of the country. On June 18 a Muslim man, who has been identified as the 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari, was beaten up by a mob in Kharsawan District of Jharkhand for over 18 hours following which he succumbed to his injuries on June 22. Several videos of the lynching have gone viral, and they all show the mob forcing Ansari to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, the holistic chant which has been politicized to its core in the ast few days.
Reportedly, West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee had claimed that the state does not follow the chant, “Jai Shri Ram”. Her party MLA, Jitendra Tiwari had said, “Look if anyone takes Ram's name with bhakti, we don't have any problem. But if someone drinks alcohol and then chants Ram's name, we won't tolerate that." This is merely a segment of the immense politicizing that Hinduism as a religion has been going through, and only a few years back the Ayodhya crisis served as a the pinnacle point of no return for a religious belief which is now being transformed into a more politicized version called Hindutva. However, way before the present ruling parties began to shower their “devotion” for a religion followed by a majority in the country, almost two deacdes back in 1992, on the 40th anniversary of Indo-Japanese diplomatic relations two directors came forward to create one of the best renditions of the epic saga, Ramayana.
The movie remained true to its roots. (IMDb)
While working on his 1983 documentary, ‘The Ramayana Relics’, a film about excavations by Dr. B.B.Lal, Japanese director Yugo Sako stumbled upon the idea of adapting the story of Ramayana in animation. Already versed in 10 different versions of the script in Japanese, he planned on not making a live-action movie, “Because Ram is God, I felt it was best to depict him in animation, rather than by an actor.” In his attempt to remain true to its roots, Sako met with several scholars, archaeologists, historians and started working on the film, and collaborated with Ram Mohan. The duo was soon joined by Krishna Shah who involved himself in the production process in 1993, and as the story began to merge for the taste of an international audience several parts of it were shrunk down, chiefly focusing on Ram’s quest into defeating Ravana.
As a new production studio, Nippon Ramayana Film Co. was set up, the team began to expand to include almost 450 artists working on board. Indians collaborated with the Japanese artists working on costume designs and traditional depiction of the historic era with rituals such as praying in joined hands and the relationship between father and son. While artists of two nations were working together in creating what is now considered the best animated movie in India, it wasn’t a work that did not have its own obstacles to face. The Indian Express misinterpreted ‘The Ramayana Relics’ which was a documentary as Sako’s attempt to create a new Ramayana.
However, nothing surpasses the fact that this movie was being made in the same year when Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations demolished the 16th Century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. It was also the same Vishva Hindu Parishad who sent a protest letter to the Japanese Embassy in Delhi claiming that no foreigners are allowed to cinematise Ramayana which is considered one of the religious texts of the Hindus. In order to keep all such misconceptions at bay, Sako suggested the idea of making an animated movie which is a serious form of art in Japan, although in India till today it is considered a children's play. Although the proposal was initially accepted, the government nevertheless denied the idea claiming that Ramayana was a much more sensitive topic and it should be portrayed as a cartoon. This compelled the entire project to be shifted to Japan with replacing all 450 artists, both Indian and Japanese as they got together to create the best onscreen production of the Ramayana.
What came out was nothing short of a retelling of the epic, with merely snippets of it missing, such as we do not see Hanuman being brought down by Bharat when he travels back to Lanka with Mt. Dronagiri in order to save a wounded Lakhshman. During an online interview, Mohan himself opened up about the obstacles the movie had to face due to the conservative nature of people. “He [Sako] wanted to do it as a co-production with Indian involvement because he wanted things to be authentic. The government of India told us that Ramayana is a very sensitive subject and cannot be depicted as a cartoon character. We tried to insist to them but they didn’t understand. In Tokyo, I used to go and supervise the designs, gestures and performances. For example they didn’t quite know how the dhoti was worn. They used to draw it like pajamas. So we had one gentleman actually demonstrating how to wear a dhoti...the telling of the story was simplified to a great extent. Because we also wanted even international audiences to understand and appreciate what has happened.”
It could have changed the course of animation in India. (IMDb)
Unfortunately, the movie never released in theatres but it was released to a global audience. Under the title of ‘The Warrior Prince’, it was the opening film of the 2000 Lucca Animation Film Festival in Italy, a highlight of the Cardiff Animation Film Festival in the United Kingdom and won Best Animation Film of the Year at the 2000 Santa Clarita International Film Festival in the United States. Perhaps had India truly looked into art and not at its conservative ideals, maybe this movie would have changed the course of Indian animation entirely.
