Sohni Mahiwal

This is my thesis project for MFA Visual Communication Design from Rochester Institute of Technology,

Rochester, NY.

Sohni Mahiwal is a folk story of the 1800’s. It took place in the province of Punjab which was then part of the Indian Subcontinent, and is today split between India and Pakistan. Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Fazal Shah Sayyad are poets who first documented this tale back in that century. Over time it continued to become part of Pakistani pop culture. It has been written about in prose and poetry, performed in film and tv, been the subject of paintings and most recently in 2016 resurfaced as an immensely popular Coke Studio song.

Sohni

The premise of this project, in an over-generalized statement, is that the Pakistani youth do not understand or appreciate the richness of Indian cultural past. Largely because academically they are not encouraged to study and explore it; plus there is a lack of digital sources. This thesis explores if re-packaging cultural folk stories in contemporary mediums such as this animation will excite and engage this generation.

Mahiwal

While this project is documenting one folk story, the core idea is to preserve the rich and fascinating cultural heritage of India. Even in the small country of Pakistan if one travels across it, the change in culture (language, clothes, food, customs, traditions, crafts, festivals) will be evident. Over the course of history, the Indian sub-continent was invaded and open to different groups of people who all brought with them their unique way of life.

It will be though impossible to study, present or preserve the complex Indian culture and heritage in one project of this size and scale. The aim of this thesis is to humbly contribute to great work cultural organizations are doing on ground. And it hopes to encourage an understanding and appreciation of South Asian history and heritage.

Following is the final animation

- Sohni Mahiwal

Final animation

All the assets / illustrations were created in Adobe Illustrator and the animation was created using Adobe After Effects. This project was good practice in working simultaneously between the two softwares. It also provided an opportunity to work with and understand the graph editor.

Top left is the first doodle I made for this project. Bottom left is the first style frame which then evolved into the final style frame (bottom right).

Some scenes from the storyboard with their representations in the final animation.

After experimenting with various type, none really fit the subject and style of this animation. Since I was taking a calligraphy class, I decided to write the titles myself. This foundational calligraphic hand ended up fitting this project quite well.

The animation was evaluated by 34 individuals, making sure to get feedback from a diverse cultural group. The core audience is Pakistanis / South Asians but I wanted the story to be understood globally. Therefore there is no dialogue and the narrative is completely audio and visual driven.

There was an overwhelmingly positive response on the style and motion.

There was some feedback on the narrative speed which was then tweaked. Some scenes were truncated however in treating this piece as a short film, some scenes are deliberately slow.