Toon Sense

THE Balle Balle boys wanted to record a music video with this man who revelled in screaming at a bunch of school kids. And Channel V8217;...

THE Balle Balle boys wanted to record a music video with this man who revelled in screaming at a bunch of school kids. And Channel V8217;s head honcho Amar K Deb tells us that Simpoo will soon have his own video for a rap song. So who is this guy who8217;s soon turning into a pin-up boy, what with a swimsuit special calendar?

Vaibhav Kumaresh has all the answers. But if you had asked a 14-year-old Kumaresh 8216;What do you want to become when you grow up?8217; just after he had written his board exams, you would have drawn a blank. Because back then, Kumaresh didn8217;t know he was the proud owner of an iconic cartoon character, who had till then only been the talk of his Central School in Chandigarh.

8216;8216;I used to return from exams and draw at least two or three pages of Simpoo everyday,8217;8217; says Kumaresh, 8216;8216;My friends would suggest what Simpoo should do next.8217;8217; The man in action was Kumaresh8217;s grumpy Maths teacher who was known for punishing students by making them stand on the bench with their hands held up. Little did he know that this action would soon turn into the famous 8216;8216;haath ooper karo8217;8217; animated promo with the Sholay star cast. Of course, the clincher being a distraught, handicapped Thakur who could never put his hands up. As for the original teacher seeing himself splashed on a swimsuit calendar, Kumaresh, 28, would rather keep it under wraps.

Today, the National Institute of Design graduate is one of the most sought after men when it comes to model animation, too. Turning a rotund snowman into a stud a la Johnny Bravo for Smirnoff was one of Kumaresh8217;s earliest projects in claymation. So when MTV8217;s Poga, the super-flexible claymation figure whose first avatar was a healing guru, and the Amaron Battery 8216;tortoise and hare8217; claymation commercial came his way, he made sure they were award-winning figures.

A 50-second Poga episode takes as long as a month to shoot, because of its ever-changing forms with complex shooting techniques and armatures models. But Kumaresh admits model animation is an 8216;8216;anytime breather8217;8217; from regular animation.

Kumaresh believes he owes it all to 8216;8216;flashes of clarity8217;8217;. Breaking away from the inhouse animation wing of Famous Studios four months ago was one such bolt of enlightenment. He has just completed his first independent and longest project so far8212;a 10-minute film for the Children8217;s Film Society, based on the story of the frog prince.

Ask the man who cut his teeth on Amar Chitra Katha and Jataka comics whether he8217;s caught the killer animation in Kill Bill and he says, 8216;8216;I haven8217;t done anything but work day and night this past month.8217;8217; And work hasn8217;t stopped pouring in. More Poga will soon be coming your way.