Hindu gods boost their ‘TEAM’ SPIRIT
Director Patel animatedly revisits his roots
Through the big eyes of a little boy, director Sanjay Patel has animated his journey from a California kid watching cartoons to a man respecting his father’s Indian traditions. Making its debut in front of The Good Dinosaur (in theaters Nov. 25), the Disney/Pixar short film Sanjay’s Super Team begins with a scene similar to Patel’s own upbringing in San Bernardino. Sanjay is glued to the TV, and Dad interrupts by ringing his bell for morning meditation.
“I knew exactly what that meant: ‘ Turn off the TV, Sanjay, and get your tail over here. We’re going to chant and count mala beads for half an hour,’ ” Patel recalls, laughing. “And I’m like: ‘I don’t really want to do that. I really want to watch Voltron.’ ” But the little Sanjay in Super Team finds something cooler than his superhero show when he joins his father: Three Hindu deities come alive to take care of a pesky monster.
Patel initially pushed aside his immigrant parents’ culture because he wanted to fit in with his American friends. But later he found respect for Indian legends and began illustrating them with skills he learned as an animator on Pixar films such as Toy Story 2, The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc. His new short “felt like this bridge I needed to bring these two things together,” says Patel, who joins producer Nicole Paradis Grindle for a Sanjay’s Super
Team panel Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con.
The artwork and filmmaking in Pixar shorts and features have always originated from personal tales, Grindle says. Patel’s animation, however, “very clearly comes from a different cultural place than all the other stories we’ve told before. … And for kids who come from these backgrounds to see themselves on screen, it’s exciting for us.”
Patel chose three deities to reference in Super Team: the monkey-like Hanuman, the goddess of power and protection Durga, and the blue-skinned Vishnu, who represents preservation.
Some might liken them to a Hindu version of the Avengers, or an Indian take on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but they’re more meaningful to Patel. “I kind of have an insider’s point of view, so I see them a little bit differently,” the filmmaker says.
The short doesn’t have any dialogue, so Patel enlisted the help of Oscar-winning composer Mychael Danna ( Life of Pi) for a fittingly non-Western soundtrack.
When little Sanjay meets the deities, Danna employs a bansuri, a spiritual instrument associated with Vishnu, Patel says. “It’s a choice that only somebody who really understood the culture would make.”
Patel recently took his father to Pixar’s headquarters to show him Sanjay’s Super Team.
It was a moving and proud experience for both men but also “very karmic,” Patel says. “I’d be the first guy to sell out my dad and my parents’ culture, so it really felt like, man, I found a way back home.”
It took Patel until his 30s to become interested in Hindu heritage, so he has patience with his 2-year-old son, Arjun: “He loves Mickey Mouse right now, and there’s nothing I can do to convince him otherwise.”