As a boy, Thengeo Khiamniungan would spend his free time doodling and scribbling on his notebooks, or imitating sketches of his favourite superheroes. The world of animation first got his interest when he watched Disney cartoons as a little boy. Later, he would watch superhero movies with the same fascination as a teenager but he fell in love with Japanese Anime movies and series as a young adult.
“I fell in love with Animation after watching Naruto and Attack on Titans and was heavily inspired”. It was Studio Ghibli which again influenced him the art of storytelling in the form of animation, he adds.
Today 25-year-old Thengeo is an animator.
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All the sketches he had been practicing on his notebooks have nurtured and polished his artistic talent. The young man hailing from Noklak Village has a YouTube channel called Naganime where he shares his works. On 29th December 2023, Thengeo, in collaboration with some artists from Nagaland, released their 4 minutes 43 seconds long Anime inspired Naga Animation film called Ho-perathi on YouTube.
Every bit of art comes with sweat, consistency and investment of time and energy, Thengeo says, adding that it takes twelve pages of drawings just to create one second moving picture. In other words, it takes one week to complete one minute animation. Likewise, he spends 9-10 hours a day continuously drawing and animating.
Thengeo’s animations allow any viewer to relate to the story. “It’s about everybody’s life, everybody can relate to love and tragedy,” he says. The artist further says that it is all about passion which is the reason why he begun his journey as an animator. The major themes he uses in his art are Innocent Love, Death, War, Tragedy and Redemption.
Thengeo says that Nagaland does not have big studios like Japan and other countries but expresses that should not be a hurdle in the present day. “Ten years before, only big studious could afford such kind of animation but today anyone can put out anything that is in his head through animation with one simple software. That is the advantage of today’s generation, we are not limited by big companies,” he states.
Further, he adds that it has the ability to boost the economy and to generate income as there are so many young talented Naga artists. “People should encourage each other,” Thengeo opines. There are huge audience in Nagaland who have great fondness for animation, just like it has influence in Japan, says the animator.
As much as he loves art, the young man feels the responsibility towards his parents and their struggles they had to endure to provide him education. He therefore balances his time by studying during the day time and pursues his passion of drawing at night time.
The young artist though says he is ready to explore and study life believing that art is about experiencing life which is the source of inspiration for all art.
“live a life”. Don’t study animation, study life. In order to observe life, you have to have a life. Live, observe, animate – in that order”, Thengeo quotes Andrew Stanton, American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar Animation Studios.
