Manchadi and Poopy are available for download at Review by Jaya Smitha Menon, the Hindu Kerala, southern most state of India also called Gods own country Madhu and his team have now set their sights on the global market by presenting local content in a new media and format. The third volume of `Manjadi,’ a compilation of folk tales from different parts of the country, is also in the making.
We are planning a series on a cat family, a humorous series intended to shape the behavioural pattern of children,” says Deepu Prasad A.L. In `Poopy,’ we have introduced a scientific temper and an inquisitive nature. It’s the Indian culture that we are trying to incorporate into the series,” adds Manu. “There is a value system that we are trying to incorporate in `Manjadi’ and `Poopy.’ There are no stories of violence and cruelty in these series. The 17-member team of Hibiscus Design also has Madhu’s colleagues from C-DIT like Sunil Kumar B, who looks into the animation side. The scripts of `Manjadi’ and `Poopy’ have been written by Manu K.S, who quit his job as a lecturer in Mahatma Gandhi University to join his brother’s venture. In `Poopy,’ we have tried to convey seven different ideas through seven stories with the help of Poopy, the main protagonist,” explains Madhu. Through the puppy, the makers have tried to explain many scientific phenomena through simple stories. The team has now produced `Poopy.’ Poopy is a cute and adorable puppy. “I remember a father telling me that he had to buy a new DVD player when his computer had some problems because his daughter wanted to see `Manjadi,”‘ adds Madhu. This volume was also well received in the market and the team started getting feedback from children and their parents.
This success encouraged us to proceed and we brought out the second volume in the next six months,” recalls Madhu. We took a stall in the exhibition ground and we could sell 600 copies in seven days. Thus `Manjadi’ was launched as a CD during a flower show in 2005 during the flower show. “But the programme was a success among kids and so they decided to compile it in a cd. However, the concept novel had to be stopped after a year owning to financial problems. Initially, Manjadi was a 30-minute kids’ programme on Kairali TV. They started Hibiscus Design through which they did many projects and eventually evolved the concept of Manjadi. So, he, along with a few of his colleagues in C-DIT, quit their job and decided to tread a new path. Says Madhu, “The field of animation and multimedia was throwing unlimited opportunities and we had this urge to do something different Animation was just restricted to making an animation video on fairytales or on something that was already there. Madhu, a postgraduate in Product Design from IIT Bombay and an Electronics Engineer from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, came up with the idea of doing something creative and unique in the area of animation when he was working with C-DIT. K.S.’ conviction that made him choose the road less travelled. The success of the venture is a vindication of Madhu. Although the CD banks on old rhymes and stories, what makes it unique is brilliant presentation, good music, interesting characters, simple dialogues and cute animation. Both my children watch it everyday,” says Sindhu Rajesh. “There is something fresh and different about Manjadi. The CDs come as music to the ears of young parents. With a cute little animated girl Twinkle as its narrator, Manjadi transports young minds to a world of animals and birds, songs and stories that also convey a moral to two. The two volumes of Manjadi comprise an interesting collection of folk songs, and stories taken from the Panchatantra and Aesop’s fables.Īnd once again tiny tots are swinging to `Kakke kakke koodevide’ and retelling the stories of the hare and the tortoise narrated in Manjadi. and his city-based team, these folk songs and rhymes have been given a new lease of life by compiling them into an animation video series and thus was born `Manjadi.’ Today, many of these couplets and rhymes are on the verge of fading out of our lives as a new generation of kids tune into English nursery rhymes and songs.
Malayalam folk song that grandmothers of yesteryears used to sing to children. Ninte koode ponnalo enthallam tharumenikku…’ĭo these lines strike a chord? Yes, these are the lines of a Onnanam kochuthumbi ente koode porumo nee… Click here to download Manchadi Volume one Manchadi (Manjadi) video series comes with great animation and slew of worthy characters singing folk songs and telling stories which are taken from the Panchatantra and Aesop’s fables, and also folk stories from different parts of India. Zinemaya is bringing you critically acclaimed and most loved children’s animation video from India.