RK Mission plans animation film on Swamiji’s life

KOLKATA: Ramakrishna Mission is in the process of making a 90-minute animation film on the life of Swami Vivekananda to make his 150th birth anniversary special. Though January 12 is Swamiji’s 150th birth anniversary, the Mission will celebrate the culmination of the same next year. Work is on in full swing and the film is likely to be released in January next year.
The film, christened “Kindled”, is being made by Aura Cinematics, an animation film company roped in by RK Mission. The storyline has been finalized and experts are now working on the animation figures. Interestingly, the technique used in the recent Tintin film — a combination of animation and realistic figures — will also being used in “Kindled”.
“We call it 3D with toon shading. It is the most recent technique in the world of animation,” said Sushmita Mukherjee, spokesperson of Aura Cinematics. While the film is being directed by Sukankan Roy, Mumbai-based Neil will score the music.
For almost a year, the film-making team discussed Swamiji’s life with RKM monks in order to arrive at a storyline. “We finally decided to create a story on the philosophy — service to man as God — that Swamiji followed. In doing this, we realized that we would have to start our story when Swamiji was just out of school to the end of his life. We have not included his childhood or formative years within the scope of this film,” said Swami Chandrakantananda, a senior RKM monk coordinating the project.
The film will start at a stage where Narendranath Dutta had still not become Swami Vivekananda. He had just written his FA exam from Scottish Church College and got introduced to Ramakrishna Paramhansa, to whom he started singing devotional songs regularly. Paramhansa Deb gradually instilled the philosophy of service in his favourite disciple. The famous episode, where Paramhansa tells Swamiji, “Jeebe daya noi, seba koro...shib gyane jeeb seba,” will be a part of the film.
The story goes on to trace how Swamiji got Paramhansa’s 10 other disciples around him and founded the RK Mission and how the Mission moved from one campus to another till Swamiji was finally able to buy 20 bighas of land on the banks of Hooghly in Belur and set up Belurmath. Swamiji’s Chicago lecture will naturally be there but more importantly, the film will focus on the technologies that he learnt from the West that would help him alleviate poverty and suffering of his people. “His fight against plague and famine will be shown in the film. It is here that we will focus on Sister Nivedita,” Swami Chandrakanta said.