Art of survival: Timeless fable in a digital space

Pir Hamid Kheshgi produces 2D animated movie on Pashto folklore.

PESHAWAR:

Bringing Pashto folklore to life in the digital age has become more a matter of animatics and storyboarding than traditional forms of storytelling.

Pir Hamid Kheshgi, a visual artist from Nowshera, has produced a 2D animated movie based on the famous Pashto tale of Yousaf Khan and Sherbano.



“The movie highlights this folk tale,” says the 33-year-old artist who is a graduate of National College of Arts in Lahore and currently lectures at the College of Fashion Design in the provincial capital.  “I hope to draw the attention of children to the story and ensure that it lives on in their hearts and minds.”

Spoiler alert

The folktale has been told to children since time immemorial and has become an ingrained feature of Pukhtun culture.

It is set during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar and tells the story of a man named Yousaf Khan, a resident of Torlanday village in Swabi.



Yousaf frequently goes hunting at a local forest. On his way, he stops at the house of a girl named Sherbano. Over time, Sherbano and Yousaf fall in love. However, their love falls prey to the evil machination of his cousins who wanted to usurp his wealth.

In a dramatic twist, Yousaf is eventually killed by his scheming relatives while Sherbano dies of a broken heart. In the early twentieth century, Ali Haider Joshi, a Pashto poet, immortalised this story in a poem titled Yousaf Khan Sherbano.  He also wrote the script for a film based on this “timeless” love story.

Living traditions

In these modern times, folklore and mythology rarely feature in public discourse and have been brushed under the carpet. There was a time when folk singers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa would keep these stories alive through their mellifluous voices. However, priorities appear to have changed. A large number of singers have moved away and little is being done to preserve cultural inheritance.

According to Kheshgi, such folk stories are living traditions which have been told across many generations. His animated movie has however made these all the more accessible.



“I felt these folktales would lose their importance in the modern era of communication,” he says. “By preserving them, we will not only be preserving our heritage but will gain useful insights about the times in which these stories were set.”

Kheshgi says these stories are not part of school curricula and movie and TV producers have not tried to bring them into the limelight. “Many people find these stories to be outdated,” he explains. “But they must realise these stories are a valuable source of information about the past. If children are made to watch cartoons based on their own culture, they would gain more awareness about their own roots.”

Storyboards          

Kheshgi’s application of 2D animations has been widely used by other visual artists in the province as well. Abdul Rahman, creator of the first Pashto animated film Jalaat Khan and Mehbooba, had used a similar technique.

Nevertheless, Kheshgi recalls the process of making the animated movie to be particularly slow and cumbersome. ”During the first six months, I spent my time doing research so I would be able to recreate the times in an accurate manner.” After this tedious process, Kheshgi began working on pencil sketches.



“We drew a hundred sketches for a single movement,” he says. “Sketches were drawn and were later scanned using different software – a process which took another six months.” During the year in which he worked on the film, Kheshgi went the extra mile to portray the subtle nuances of Pukhtun culture. “The films use digital media to present our rich cultural heritage more acurately,” he adds.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2015.