The media lab at Gurgaon also unveiled a new exciting project, ‘Rangmahal’, which comes in the wake of the much acclaimed, ‘Music Binds All’. Rangmahal is a recreation of shadow puppetry – an ancient, but dying art – using digital media. Rangmahal literally means, ‘Palace of Colors’, and the short film takes you through the pristine and spectacular world of royal palaces in their full splendour. Both the styles are animated in flash and this film is unique, as the paintings here animate and explain the concepts behind them.
Emantras considers it a worthy successor to ‘Music Binds All’ which is an ode to Indian folk art and music. Music Binds All is a bid to recreate the magic of Indian folk art. It depicts the bond between humans and nature with paintings from different art styles.
The lead architect at mLab opines that ‘with Rangmahal and Music Binds All, mLab is striving to resurrect dying art forms like shadow puppetry and other folk arts and bring it to mainstream using digital media. It’s an attempt to popularize them amongst a contemporary and tech savvy audience’.
It is worth noting that Music Binds All was screened at prestigious locations such as Annecy 2009, France and IIF-LA 2009 (US).
Rangmahal is a worthy addition to this genre, and unique as it is also filled with mirth and gaiety associated with Indian culture and ancient history. It has been accepted for screening at IIF-Los Angeles and is expected to strike big with others like Melbourne Film Fest and Annecy.
mLab is currently wrapping up another animation movie called ‘Dancing on the wall’, a folklore adaptation.
