A return to glory

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KOCHI: Pranavam Arts, the production company of actor Mohanlal, is on a comeback mode. After a gap of 11 years, Pranavam Arts renamed as Pranavam Arts International, would hit theatres with its Lal movie ‘Kandahar’ directed by Major Ravi. But what makes the re-entry grandiose is the technically elevated signature film and logo showcasing the production house. The 27-second-long signature reel has been done by Lal’s own animation studio, Vismayas Max Animation.

The figure of ‘Natarajathandavam’, which is one of Lal’s all-time favourite posture of Lord Shiva, has found a place in the signature film.

It adopts pass rendering technology, which is a hi-tech animation skill, that gives high resolution output for the movie in the theatre. The 3-D animated movie is of international standards, to make the re-entry of Pranavam noticeable, marketing head Vismayas, Pramod says.

The movie begins with the image of ‘damaru’, then grows up to the form of Nataraja. Against the background, you can hear the sound of conch, giving way to Sanskrit ‘chollukal’ with the sound of 'Om', the first universal music, enveloping the senses, giving the true feeling of being near a Shiva temple. The icy Kailasam and steps to the abode of Shiva are also incorporated into the imagery. “Pranavam is the ‘adi shabdam’ and that’s why we finally went in for this concept where the sound and form start from the Himalayas,” says Vinod, project co-ordinator of Vismayas.

“Earlier, we had a card showcasing the name of the production house. Even now, other production houses have these cards that roll round the name or show a single image. We wanted ours to stand out and the audience to take notice,” says Jipin, post-production head of Vismayas. The concept can be seen in various perspective, as the viewer wants to let loose his imagination, Team Vismayas says. “It would be a prelude to the good movies that are to flow out of the production house,” their expectations are high. Team Vismayas had created a dozen of concepts for the signature movie. “This one was hand-picked by Lal sir, who wanted it to be one of the best ever seen,” Jipin says.

From conceiving to creating, it had taken four months for Team Vismayas to come up with the movie. A six-member team headed by Project Director K D Shybu worked behind the film on a daily basis. The film purely made on the platform of Maya software was digitally supervised by Bipin Krishna. The models of Kailasam and Nataraja were given the realistic feel using sea brush which was done by digital sculpturing artist Vivek Vijay. The supervision of texturing was done by Shibith Kottoor and lighting by Sony Chacko. While Praveen M S was the 3-D animation production supervisor, the final touches were given by Jipin Surendran.

Pranavam Arts had made popular and much-loved movies starting from ‘His Highness Abdullah’ to ‘Bharatam’ and ‘Kamaladalam’. Their last movie was ‘Vanaprastham’ which had won Mohanlal the national award. But like every good thing that comes to an end, Pranavam faded into oblivion after that. When ‘Kandahar’ hits theatres in December, it is expected to give the audience an extra dose of visual treat with the signature film promising a new feel, even if for a few seconds.