I had my childhood nourishment of entertainment from Vividh Bharati and Doordarshan so this post of Turbanhead revived old memories. The “Ek Anek” short animation film was targeted at National integration and was used as filler by DD at that time and, thanks to the fact that satellite TV wasn’t even there, was immensely popular. Many readers might not know perhaps about the persons behind this animation marvel, Vasant Desai (one of my favorite lyricists/composer) and Bhimsen Khurana, one of India’s finest animation talent. Desai has been better known for his work in the movie Utsav but Ek Anek is perhaps one of his best innocent work.

I had known about Bhimsen as a filmmaker first, from his serial “Chhoti Badi Baatein” against superstitions  featuring Ashok Saraf, Sulbha and Arvind Deshpande and Dr. Maya Alagh. This was a very successful Sunday bonanza on DD. He was known also for immensely successful movies like “Gharonda” and “Dooriyan“. It was later that I came to know that Bhimsen was actually an accomplished animator.

Speaking of animation, we have come a long way now, but in those days of 70’s Films Division was the only harbinger for such projects. It’s good that India’s animation industry is now a sought after entity but it perhaps cannot be denied that it stands on the shoulder of stalwarts such as Bhimsen. I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice write-up on him here, so do read it if you have time.