Indemau to touch children’s hearts with values and gaiety

PUNE, June 7: After Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Casper the friendly ghost, it is the turn of Indemau the friendly Indian’ cat dressed in the tricolour, to line the bookshelves of children’s’ libraries and accompany them through their childhood.

And a cat always lands on its feet, however hard the fall, which is why Sanjay Upadhye, author of Indemauchi Gani, released today at Tilak Smarak Mandir, has chosen this four-legged feline to drive values into the hearts of children, through these 20 lively Marathi songs. Already available on tape, the songs, which he says combine education with entertainment, are the result of 10-15 years of Sanjay’s career as a magician and compere for musical nights. By December this year, Indemau will appear on stage, in the form of a clown, human or cat, for different scenes, and speak in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati, for Upadhye is aiming at a national audience of parents and children, language no bar.

“Indemau is the regional fictional friend children are looking for,” he says. “In my play, Indemau guides the child from birth till he steps out of school, accompanying him through happy and sad times, inspiring him and checking him when he is tempted to go astray.”

“It is time for literary characters to replace those in Hindi movies, which are corrupting our youth in their impressionable developing years,” he says. “Indemau teaches self-control, culture and family values through songs.”

Pune’s audiences were the first to view Indemau’s exploits today, with Upadhye enacting the first-half of his play for the first time in public, at the fifteenth anniversary celebration of Chandrakala Prakashan. Five songs from the book were also performed. Vastav, the second edition of his book of poems, was released at the hands of Nihar Shembekar.