A for anime, B for be
Has it ever crossed your mind that Mowgli looks more Japanese than Indian? If it didn’t, it’s got something to do with your ignorance of Japanese anime. Those familiar with this extraordinary form of animation would know that drawn characters have similar facial features; a pointed chin and staring rheumy eyes being two of them. The Mowgli you and i grew up with — not the one popularized by Disney — looks distinctly non-Indian because he was drawn by Japanese folks in the late ’80s. Not that anybody with desi background should complain. Better let the experts do what they are brilliant at. Besides, the only biopic on Gandhiji worth watching was made by a British filmmaker!
Going back to the ponytailed little boy, i got struck by him when i was about two feet tall. I was so amazed by his free spirit, jumping around from place to place, swinging from one tree to another, riding on panther, sleeping on a bear’s belly, face-licked by wolves, fighting with tiger and hyenas, so much amazeness, so much howdotoevendescribeitnow. Even at a nascent age, i could figure out that i am never going to be THAT cool. The guy barely had a grassy underwear but in my mind, he had everything. Let’s not even get in to the dynamic epicness of that boomerang (although it’s worth wondering how did an Indian kid end up with an Austral tool). Every single episode of The Jungle Book was watched by me with Anthony Hopkins’ level of unblinkability. From singing along Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai, which was penned by Gulzar saab, at the beginning of the show to feeling bad when the episode ended, i was totally smitten by Mowgli. Over the weekdays, i used to keep sketching his face in my notebooks. That was my penultimate phase of fanhood; at a time when i didn’t even know what it meant to be a fanboy. I just liked that kid so much for whatever he was and could do. And the greatest cube of admiration trickled from his ability to speak with animals.
That was something else.
None of the superheroes i encountered later could speak to animals, let alone, survive in a jungle. This little kid was way above the rest for me. In fact, he still is. I place him right at the top of all imaginary heroes-turned-friends. Calvin comes close second.
Speaking of imagination, i watched a few Japanese anime films of late. Some really touching ones. It’s one thing to imagine a picture and it’s quite another to infuse emotions into it. The makers of films like Kimi no na wa. (2016), Koe no Katachi (2016), Kotonoha no Niwa (2013) and 5 Centimeters per Second (2007) go beyond the obvious as far as representation goes. For them, it’s not just about making animation life-like but also making animation dare what even ‘alive’ can’t. In all these films, and others i haven’t watched yet, the filmmakers are trying to touch that place otherwise reserved for live action cinema. A story can be conveyed in several ways and there is no dearth of great stories either. Literature is begging for the stories to be told and retold. What Japanese anime has proved time and again is that stories ought to be given an edge, by involving all probable dimensions. You see tears welling down a character’s face and you feel for that person’s foreboding. You notice the hesitant steps of the guy towards the girl and you want to nudge him forward. You cherish the koi-filled streams and the sounds they make want you to visit Tokyo. You gnaw at the kindness of the grandma. You feel the snow on you — well, almost. Similarly, a part of you want to experience the cherry blossom at spring. Pink galore. They are not cartoons. They are an attempt at being. Not just the living elements, this is true even for the non-living ones. The rural-urban semblance highlighted by the view outside a moving train as well as the road on which a bike is riding say so much about the modern possibilities.
Your eyes are pleased, yes, but you are awakened and dragged back to your core. Or maybe your childhood when things were, err, innocent.
In other words, it’s magical and no matter what i write here, you won’t internalize any of the magic unless you watch these animes.
Yup. Or like Mowgli would say, “What animals?”
