[Bhai Taru Singh Ji Animated Free Download
Everardo Laboy
In aworld that wants to ban turbans, a dead hero is privately inspiring hope.
His name is Bhai Taru Singh. At the age of 24, this piousSikh was given a choice. He could either have his faith or his life.
"All your sins can be pardoned if you cut yourlong hair and renounce your faith," the governor told him. When Taru Singhrefused to give up his faith, the enraged governor ordered acobbler to chisel off the saint's scalp instead.
The sight ofthe blood-ridden head of this saintly warrior, who was the stuff of every Sikhmother's oral fables, is now leading to fresh tears within the community.In fact, some members of the Sikh diaspora, which is grappling with racialprofiling, turban bans and community jokes, have even sworn online - afterwatching the film that is being screened in private shows around the world- that they will never cut their hair.
Bhai Taru Singh,which will release in India in March 2010, is the fourth in a series of Sikh animation films made by Chandigarh based animation studio, Vismaad, with a purpose.
"We believe that if connected with real heroes from Sikh history,today's youth will take pride in their distinct identity," saysSukhwinder Singh, founder of Vismaad, who grew up on such sakhis (stories)narrated by his mother. "The youth doesn't take pride in their Sikhappearance of turban and uncut hair anymore. Apostasy is on the rise and hasworried the Sikh leadership," he adds.
So, five years ago, he decided toset up Vismaad with a friend, choosing animation as his medium of story-telling."It is non-intimidating, charms all age groups and doesn't requirehunting for fake actors to enact those marvellous saint-soldiers of Sikhhistory," says Singh, who has written and directed Bhai Taru Singh.
The legendary hero wasn't easy to recreate though, even forVismaad, which is now five years and four Sikh films old.
In addition to sparseinformation on this historical hero who lived from 1720 to 1745, history also yieldedlittle description on his appearance. This posed a challenge for animationdirector Sanjay Kumar. "Cartoons are easy, but making this real-lifecharacter come alive was very tough," says Kumar, who had a small team of25 artists to back him.
"I had to be careful that his appearance wasconsistent and body ratio was measured with a scale and not fingers, as isusually done. Also, since I was dealing with a religious figure, I had to finetune his expressions, smile, lip synchronisation so that nothing appears overthe top or cartoonish."
However, Sanjay, who has alsointroduced some comic scenes in the movie, keeping kids in mind, has reason to besatisfied with himself. Over 20,000 people have already watched the 90-minutemovie in private screenings across Canada, U.K., U.S.A., France, Australia, Germanyand Italy, and it will soon be screened at the Guinness Book of WorldRecords' largest 35-mm fixed screen Hyots Cinema in New Zealand.
At one of the shows, she was taken aback when a 15-year-old Sikh boy at the endof the film yelled out the slogan "Degh, Tegh, Fateh" - Victory to the Sword that protects the weak, to the Cooking Pot that feeds the hungry!" - and theaudience responded with - "Panth ki jeet" - "Victory to the Sikh Nation!"
But one of the biggestchallenges for Vismaad is marketing. The studio has been following a uniqueprivate screening model as movie distributors are not interested in purelyreligious movies."For them, commercial interests are moreimportant," says Sukhwinder Singh.
"We work with limited budgets and most of the effort is voluntary.Advertisement is of prime concern, so we ask members of the congregation toparticipate by helping us in campaigns via flyers, handouts, phone calls, massemail advertising," says Saluja Singh, who organises the screening.
"Initially, we relied on internet marketing by emailing our close friendswho further used their contacts to spread the word. Eventually an email viralhappened and hits started increasing on the movie website," recallsSukhwinder Singh, who set up his firm at a time when there was no animationstudio in north India. The plots of all the movies were published in online Sikhmagazines. These brought many new visitors to the website. Discussions wereinitiated on all major blogs and discussion boards specific to Sikh matters.
In fact, in the 2005 screening of Vismaad's first filmSahibzadey at The Spinning Wheel Film Festival of Toronto, Sukhwinder Singh was asked whyhe had made a film on Guru Gobind Singh's sons. Sukhwinder invited six-year-oldAnoop Kaur, a Sikh- Canadian, to the stage who recited one of the moviedialogues in chaste Punjabi.
Congratulations to Sardar Sukhwinder Singh and everyone at Vismaad! It's easy to understand why there wasn't a dry eye in the audience; "Bhai Taru Singh" sounds like an immensely moving and inspirational film. I'm looking forward to seeing it! May Waheguru continue to bless the Vismaad team with Chardi Kalaa to carry on their much-needed work.
This is fantastic! But why do we not get any of this stuff on the west coast of Canada? Why don't we get The Spinning Wheel Film Festival here as well? We have a 300,000 strong Sikh diaspora in the west! [Editor: These things don't 'come' ... somebody has to make an effort there to 'get' them!]
Manjyot Kaur ji: we tried hard to bring the movie to New York City but, sadly, couldn't get it going (although New Jersey had two very successful screenings in local cinemas). N.Singh: Five screenings were organized in British Columbia. However, only about 250 from 300,000 Sikh-Canadians who live in the province turned up to watch the movie. (The Toronto screening was watched by 3000). Jasvinder: The film was screened in Auckland, New Zealand in November 2009. Another screening is coming up on Feb 28 at the Hyots Cinema. Please visit www.bhaitarusingh.com for more details. Please contact the Auckland organizers for a screening in Hamilton, NZ.
GurFateh, Editor ji: you are absolutely correct ... "These things don't 'come' ... somebody has to make an effort there to 'get' them!" This is a humble message to the New York sangat, and to the sangat in all other cities where the movie has not yet been released. We request you to please come forward and organize a screening of 'Bhai Taru Singh' so that every Sikh and non-Sikh knows about the supreme sacrifice of this brave shaheed. Together, we can make it happen!
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