Arpita Sharma

IR2028

The Monster-in-law : Khaufnak Saas

'Saas ka Khauf' is an upcoming animated movie based on a dark character, Bhawani Devi - the mother-in-law with the iconic twitch in her eye. Before visualising and creating the fictional world around her, I underwent a series of lessons beginning with knowing myself first, where I went back in life to express and illustrate my life story. I then learnt from the masters of visual communication- graphic designers and artists. To enhance my storytelling abilities, I went on a movie marathon, understanding and analysing storyboards, character development and production design. Eventually, this gave me wings to develop my animation-film.


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Bhawani Devi, the Monster-in-law Lalita Pawar from Sau Din Saas ke has been reimagined in an animation movie “Saas ka Khauf”. The story showcases the life of a sinister saas and the ways in which she exploit people to prove her status and dignity.

Black Magic Mystical Nights - The dark nights of Bhawani Devi are spent in this underground space. She gets to try the experiments with her most obsessed thing on earth-Eyes. The obsession comes because of the defect in her own eye. This saas learns and researches on black magic. She is all dressed up in her black saree which is the opposite of what she wears during the day, she adorns herself in the mirror as she prepares potions, does japp and pooja of Bhairav . She has worked really hard to get here - read books, researched papers, met gurus. She is now ready to perform the ritual on those eyes that she has collected over the past few years.

The Torture Room - Bhawani devi was always keen to find a reason to harm. She found all the reasons to torture people. She would take them to a dark dingy place and keep them tied through shackles and chains. She repurposed her kitchen and garden tools and used them against people. She would burn people in the feet or face or hands and cut their fingers and toes. She also used to cut the tongue of servants and leave them in the cage with lots of lizards and snakes. She could resort to any method when it comes to her status or dignity. She wanted to be the superior most and the richest one so she exploited people in ways one couldn’t imagine.

The Grand Hall - Portraying herself as the richest person, she walks like a queen in her Haweli. Up and down through the staircases, she moves through the halls inspecting the walls and the finesse in interiors. The extensive carvings and lightings displays her grand behaviour. Lights are laid in every corner. She finds all the happiness here and finds ways in what more could be added to her Red Royalty.

The Zamindari Business - As Royal as she showcases her, she keeps herself and her surroundings top notch. Manipulating the land papers was in her blood. She lived like the ruler of the world because of the power, the walls of her interiors gave. Always and everytime she is ready to steal. And dare anyone interrupts her or intrudes her, she could go violent right away. Royal flooring and carpets are laid for none to walk but her. Selfish and greedy as she always is, She could go to any means to prove herself right. Dominant in her character as well as her spaces.

Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea directed by Tom Moore became my inspiration to develop my own animation movie. The Irish Studio Cartoon Saloon offered a unique visual style combining traditional hand painted watercolor backgrounds and later digitizing it later along with the character animation reflected in my story board and the cinematic spaces.

Lloronas of Juarez is the story of ongoing US Mexico border disputes where the children are separated from their mothers in Detention Camps. The mothers then take a step in the Maquiladoras factory to reform the city along the river and bring their children back by designing the city. The interiorscape created was sent to an exhibition and thus the poster too was created in the similar terms highlighting the separation.

Andre Derain, a painter whose work was neither realistic nor abstract but Fauvistic attracted me to his painting style and his way of interpreting the world. He was the co-founder of fauvism. The use of impulsive strokes, unnatural, pure colors straight from the tube on landscapes and urbanscapes captured spontaneously brought me closer to his work. To understand more about him I researched and captured similar themes and the thematic components. I analysed one of my favourite paintings of him in detail and created a color palette out of it. I used the same to capture CEPT Architecture ramp adding all the knowledge that I had gained from the painter and remembering his quote, “Colors were dynamite for us”.

Richard Perez, a graphic designer who produces fun and vibrant designs with the use of stroke, flat shapes and colors became another milestone in my life. I learnt and emulated his style through creating postcards for my colleague - Roshan Adarsh. I depicted her aspirations and dreams using the spatial context. The portrait collage depicts her qualities, hopes, friends, daily life, choices, taste, relationships and many more physical and mental attributes about her.

The Visual Autobiography depicts my life journey in colours . The pastel sketches depict the background setting and the mood and the doodles describe the characters and objects. They together explain the key events of my life at various places in India. This adventurous spirit is also highlighted in the book named 'Adventure Awaits'.

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