Hasta La Motion!

Prolific filmmaker Ramana’s live-action short film Living Idle – about a woman’s unconditional love for her husband and family – is fast gaining approval across the globe. It won 26 international awards at various film festivals, the recent one being at Five Continents International Film Festival (FICOCC) in May this year. The film which runs for a duration of seven minutes, revolves around a woman who goes to any extent to fulfil her duty without any expectations or biases towards her oppressors.

Ramana with FICOCC Award

Currently the art director at Assemblage – a Mumbai-based CGI animation production studio – Ramana closely works with Hollywood clients in areas related to visual development, visual scripting and design. Working in the movie business for over 20 years, Ramana has been a part of renowned studios including the likes of DreamWorks Animation and has been mentored by great film-makers such as Shekhar Kapur. Throughout his career, he has worked on films like Puss in Boots, Madagascar, Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Prince of Persia.

On his film receiving worldwide appreciation, Ramana said, “The most important thing for a creative person to excel at his work is when he is allowed the freedom of expression. This automatically translated into one’s body of work. Working here at Assemblage, I have been given the kind of freedom that a film maker can only dream of!”

Ramana is the latest addition to the award-winning team at Assemblage Entertainment that consists of technocrats, artists and production managers with several years of experience in creating animation productions in collaboration with major Hollywood studios and independent production companies globally.

Congratulating Ramana on his recent success, Assemblage, head of strategy and new business, Arjun Madhavan adds, “Ramana’s ability to translate his creative visualisation into celluloid over a weekend’s worth of a shoot has been very impressive. Kudos to him, the brilliant actors and execution team for pulling this off!”

Living Idle is a symbolic short film that reflects actions have consequences. It is the story of an artist, a creative sculptor of idols that puts life and colour into clusters of mud and clay. Ironically, he fails to add colour to his own world – his family and child. The narrative revolves around how a creation of the sculptor – an idol of Ma Durga – punishes him (by rendering him indisposed and idle) when he crosses all limits of abuse and shows him a life of yearning. The film concludes with a deep dawn of realisation, of how a single action takes away from him his ability to be a prolific sculptor- that of clay and stone and that of his child’s future. The film is embedded with contrasting symbolism, as aptly reflected in its title, most strongly that of the strength of a woman, of a mother, which is representative in Ma Durga’s rendition of Good Over Evil.

The hunger for food, the hunger for physical fulfilment and the hunger for creativity are natural, necessary, and common human instincts. However, an unbalanced, excessive, and uncontrolled desire to fulfill one’s hunger leads to dire consequences, which is the story of Living Idle. The film presents a power packed performance from its two primary characters, Anil Mange and Geetanjali Mishra.

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