There is an animation film from India at Marché du Film, the world’s largest film market, at the Cannes Film Festival starting next week. Kolkata-born filmmaker Upmanyu Bhattacharya’s film Heirloom revisits Ahmedabad’s famous handloom heritage which is under threat today due to modern machines. Kolkata-born Bhattacharya, who studied animation film making at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, will focus international attention on the age-old textile tradition of Ahmedabad, known as the Manchester of the East, and India’s animation film industry.
tradition vs modernity
A period drama set in Ahmedabad in the 60s, Heirloom tells the story of a young couple whose lives change when they accidentally discover a tapestry that reveals their entire family history through memories and stories. This film, which is coming in Hindi and English language, shows the struggle of Kirti. A husband who spends a lot of money building a handloom museum and his wife Sonal who thinks they should start a power loom business to secure their family’s future.
“The entire film background has been hand-drawn using paint and pencil on paper, while the character animation has been created digitally,” says Bhattacharya, who completed his studies in Animation Film Design from NID in 2014.
Animation and Ahmedabad
“Ahmedabad was the first city that I had the pleasure of exploring alone and the city that I began to draw. When we learned to draw buildings it was the houses of the old city that we were drafting.
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