Letters: Taste for tradition

Swarup Chakraborty writes (“Warner Bros to distribute Ramayana”, September 14) that many Indian animation films were shelved in 2008-2009 because of the downturn and the flop of Roadside Romeo. Now the “original Indian superhero” comes to save the day in Ramayana — the Epic, directed by Chetan Desai and voiced by Juhi Chawla and other stars.

Wish they could save the day. Apparently what has raised the distributors’ confidence is the success in India of recent Hollywood animated features like Ice Age 3, Monsters vs Aliens and Avatar. With the exception of Avatar, however, these were treated as kiddie movies. And Avatar was all about the show-sha.

I don’t think the Ramayana has the same kind of universal pull beyond India. It looks visually plainer than Avatar and will not be as quirky and funny as Monsters vs Aliens or Wall-E. Indians already know the story, and overseas audiences won't quite get it.

Maybe Indian filmmakers should try making other kinds of stories in animation format. Why not an animated romance, or a thriller, or a war film? At least then marketers will know whether Indians really have a taste for animation, or whether animated epics just reflect an old taste for tradition.

G Niaz, Lucknow