A young boy opens a cabinet door, switches on the television, and gets transported into the world of his favourite superhero cartoons. Across the room, his father sits cross-legged on the floor, opens up a similar cabinet, lights a prayer lamp and begins a prayer that is interrupted by the noise from his son’s TV show. The irate father switches off the TV and urges his young son to join him in prayer. The boy reluctantly joins him but is soon mesmerised by the flickering flame of the lamp and transported into a fantasy world where Hindu gods and goddesses (Vishnu, Durga and Hanuman) team up with Sanjay’s favourite superhero to overcome an evil monster.
American filmmaker Sanjay Patel’s dialogue-free short will play before Disney Pixar’s new movie The Good Dinosaur, which opens on December 4. The seven-minute film succinctly and affectionately encapsulates issues of identity, acceptance and compromise. The film is said to have been based on episodes from Patel’s life. He has worked as an animator and story artist at Pixar for 20 years, and illustrates graphic novels based on Indian mythology in his spare time.