Hanuman

(Pic adopted from Rediff)

Hanuman is an interesting cartoon movie (they call it India's first 2-D animation movie), surely worth owning as a DVD. It is not a typical epic story conveyed in the old-fashioned style of 'pure' language and lotsa songs. It is short, cute, pacy and informative. If you have children at home, instead of immersing them with Harry Potter mania, you can show Hanuman and you would have done what your grandma did to you when you were young. Yes, story telling, in its unique way.

For the Pixar fans, this is not to be compared with any of their works.. In fact, IMHO, this work is inferior even to good-old 'Bambi' in terms of showing the subtle body language changes in animation. You can see a 'shaking effect' when the characters are in brisk motion.. but once you set your eyes into the narration, the finer things are rightly forgotten and one is completely engrossed in the movie.

To tell what a Ramanand Sagar or B.R. Chopra would have made as a year-long teleserial into a less than 100 minute venture is by itself an applauding one. The screenplay would have made a Dharani or Hari proud, since the director never releases his foot from the gas. There are some minor quirks in the story that some of us can pick up, but for kids it is certainly a full-time spiritual entertainment. Mukesh Khanna's voice fits very well for Hanuman. Overall, it is what can be called a 'milestone' in Indian animation movies. I couldnt stop thinking how it would be if Pixar picks up our epics and mythology for a faithful story-telling.

I strongly recommend this movie for both real kids and the kids in all of us.. :-)