Sri Hanuman Chalisa :
Film and Exhibition

Paramjot Walia

Don’t mistake it for just another exhibition exploring the safe Indian mythological subject. Charuvi Agrawal’s works remould the space into an experience says Paramjot Walia.
It is not just the myths painted on canvas and the chant beautifully calligraphed, It’s where code becomes the raw material for sculpting an experience. It trespasses the traditional definition of art and stares as art romances happily with its new found love “digitization”. You could judge the quality of this digital interaction the same way you might consider the harmony between form and content in a physical artwork. Giving myths a contemporary essence, Charuvi Design Lab, founded and spearheaded by Animation Film Maker Charuvi Agrawal, ‘re-launches’ the mythological iconic saint “Shri Hanuman”. Implementing magnificent sculptures, technological driven innovative visualizations and interactive Augmented Reality(AR), the exhibition offers a much more interactive experience than an ephemeral platform showing the already shown. The show takes the audience from one transient phase to another showing various phases of Hanuman with the five and a half minute 3D ‘holographic’ film inside a glass pyramid based on the Spirit of Lord Hanuman, to the installation made in the style of a traditional Kavad, to the space showcasing a collection of immaculately created models of
Lord Hanuman fighting the demons. The augmented reality device redefines the emotional resonance of a disciple with his mythological God. One would see a first-of-its-kind sculpture ,a twenty five feet high interactive Installation of Lord Hanuman created out of 25,000 suspended bells tied together with fishing net fiber to create a silhouette of Hanuman. The Event set-up is a prelude for the launch of the 3D animation film on The Hanuman Chalisa at JN Stadium Complex in April’14. The twelve minute animated film with the voiceover by bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan , embellishes the verses of Hanuman Chalisa and catapults its myth to a whole new level.
Targeted at mass audience, the script of this short film has been translated as per the animation requirements to create a narrative piece. Charuvi Aggarwal,The Limca Book of Record holder adds, “I wanted to redefine the mythological characters in terms of their appeal based on texts and paintings taken from different parts of India and Asia. To understand the subject better I visited the Ghats of Varanasi, read many versions of the Ramayana. “ Much research has gone into making of every little aspect of this exhibition from jewellery inspired by kerala miniscule jewelry designs to minute detailing of every character to grandiose settings of the mythological era. The exhibition creates an ethereal ambience and takes you on a well curated virtual tour through the life of Hanuman imparting intense realism to every facet of Hanumans’ life making an agnostic, like me, reconsider her realms of faith.