PRAMOD PATI

Pramod Pati was the head of animation in the government-run Film Division. His career was brief but dazzling, filled with genre-busting works.

Here's a brief sketch of Pramod Pati's life

• Pati was born in 1932. After his graduation from Utkal University in Odisha, he studied cinematography in Bengaluru and then went on to work with the Odisha government between 1952 and 1956. Around this time, Pati was awarded a government fellowship to study puppet animation in Prague, Czechoslovakia. There, he trained under master animator Jiri Trnka. On his return, Pati joined the government-run Films Division in Mumbai as the head of animation.
• Film historian Amrit Gangar has said about his work, “He imbues these films with a deep sense of rhythm with his editing technique and sound. In those days, there were no sound designers like today. Pati conceived sound design in a unique manner, the only other example that I find in this realm is Ritwik Ghatak.”
• Pati’s playfulness showed up in unexpected places. In Wives and Wives (1962), a man weighs his options for a good housewife at a marriage bureau.
• In Abid (1970), Pati collaborated with artist Abid Surti to experiment with the stop-motion technique called pixilation, a technique in which live subjects are made to move like animated figures.
• The short film Claxplosion (1968) looks at family planning, using clay to symbolically construct a happy life.
• Pati died in 1975, leaving behind a legacy that is still being unpacked. “His films seem incongruous for the time it was made; they feel closer to MTV’s graphics than FD’s documentaries,” Surti observed.

If you have time, you should read more about this incredible human being in this article.