Exploring the nuances of human emotion through the lens of nature, three friends created a poignant animated musical short Barsaat (Hindi word for “rain”). In a careful blend of storytelling and artistic expression, the film delves deep into the fleeting essence of life, weaving a profoundly personal narrative that resonates with the audience long after viewing.
Barsaat follows a couple reminiscing about their youth and the countless moments they shared with one another. As their life together unfolds, they face the heartbreaking news of their child’s illness with little to no hope for a cure. Where this inescapable eventuality takes them, and how they cope with the loss, forms the crux of the story.
The film is co-created by Ashwin Syam and Vipin Samuel. The main story was written by Syam which was then developed further by Vipin, and produced by the production house Vicarious Prism. The lyrics of the film’s song are penned by Gaurav Digga.
A personal touch
Barsaat is inspired by Syam’s grandparents. Following his grandmother’s passing due to cancer in 2012, Syam witnessed a profound moment when his grandfather, typically stoic in accordance with traditional norms for Indian men, completely broke down. “It was a striking experience for me,” Syam reflected. “It made me think about how deep their relationship must have been, prompting me to ponder over the ups and downs they must have weathered together.” This experience became the inspiration for the song.”
Syam had composed a melody for a college assignment that he dreamt of turning into a music video. When he wrote the story, rain itself was a character that he developed with lyricist Digga in the process of composing the song.
Inception of Vicarious Prism and the creative minds
Five years ago, Barsaat began as a dream of three non-animators determined to create an animation video. This led to the founding of Vicarious Prism. As of today, the studio’s core team consists of four creative minds – Vipin; director, musician, and writer Ritu Gopal; associate director and writer Vaishakh Unnithan; and Vipin’s mother Shaila who is a producer. Independent musicians and creative professionals also contributed in crafting the film.
But Barsaat evolved into a larger production with nearly 30 creative and technical professionals, shared Vicarious Prism founder Vipin. Tragically, his father Samuel Joshua, who was instrumental in producing Barsaat, passed away during the film’s production and couldn’t see the final outcome.
Building blocks of Barsaat
The six-minute musical began as a collaboration between Syam and Vipin, with illustrators Padmashree Satyanarayana (the film’s lead pre-visualisation artist ) and Neeti Sivakumar (environment visualisation artist) joining soon after. “Together, we worked on developing everything from character design, environments, colour palette, and themes, aiming for a camera movement style akin to a circle throughout the story. The work that we did during pre-production and the initial phase of production was equally good to go out as an animated music video, but we could not bring in the flow and precision of animation without a highly skilled professional. The initial experimentation and illustrated images translated into the director’s cut, which is also out on our YouTube channel,” Vipin shared.
To enhance the 2D animation, the team collaborated with Totem Creative. Totem’s involvement in the project made things smoother for Vicarious, wherein both the studios matched their work ethics and the rhythm of communication.
What Vicarious Prism had created was a lot to be incorporated into a film spanning just six minutes. “We went on to trim the story and replace a few scenes to bring in continuity, and clearly depict the visual narrative through the series of events,” Vipin revealed.
Initially, the team aspired to give the film a watercolour treatment but had to simplify the look to make it practical for animation. Totem’s animation artists explained that hand-drawn animation would complement the organic art style and the direction with seamless transitions. They also used a bit of 3D as a base for some scenes and painted over it in 2D, especially shots where the camera rotation technique was used which helped in getting a lot of dynamic motion even in complex scenes.
Music and sound design
Syam explained that the opening of the song features an ambient pulse with the guitar, setting the tone for the story. This, combined with the sounds of nature from Kerala, made the animated world come to life. This ambient pulse runs throughout the story to signify the couple’s ever-flowing journey. “During the emotional interlude, the piano and violin create a cinematic feel, with sound design elements making the memories feel ethereal. To heighten the impact, we have used silence just before the most emotional segment of the film, and here the violin and piano soar to make the impact sink in and land into a place of depth,” he mentioned.
Symbolism and visuals
When Vipin began developing the story, the key factor was how life is a circle, and that whatever happens, the cycles keep recurring just like seasons. The story is set against the backdrop of Munnar, Kerala, featuring the unique Neelakurinji flower which is specific to very few regions.
The rare flora is used as a symbolism. Vipin elaborated, “Neelakurunji fully came into the storyline once we were visualising the storyboard and environment. Our initial idea was to showcase the key moments in the life of the child by the blooming of a flower. We started sketching them out during our initial illustrations. Later on, we discovered that the blooming of Neelakurinji occurs every 12 years, perfectly aligning with the events of the story. From then on, we incorporated the flower into the most precious and important moments of the family’s life.”
Rain and Neelakurunji were woven into the story to depict the parallels between nature and human emotion as well as the passage of time.
Barsaat represents five years of learning, experimenting, unlearning, and understanding, as well as the journey of friendship. A significant portion of work was accomplished during the pandemic, providing the creators with a reason to rejoice amidst the global health crisis.
“At the heart of the process was the goal that what we create should resonate with the audience, making them a part of the lives that we showcase on the silver screen,” Vipin said.
Interestingly, Barsaat has been travelling to top animation festivals in India, and has bagged the Ram Mohan Viewer’s Choice Award for Professional Short Film at AniFest 2024 (India).
Talking about his future plans, Vipin signed off by sharing, “We are currently developing a surreal animated anthology series. In parallel, we are setting the groundwork for a few projects that we will announce in time.”