Ramayana, a click away

GETTING THE right balance between simplicity and versatility is crucial when considering the transfer of an epic like Valmiki's Ramayana into an attractive mutimedia storybook compressed into nearly 225 minutes of near movie display in the computer. Image Infotainment has just about got it cracked with the comprehensive CD on the Ramayana in 3 parts, developed at the company's centre in Chennai. A complementary CD comes along with the kit, which contains information on The Ramayana in other languages, in addition to games and puzzles based on the Ramayana theme. It is in enhanced CD format and contains the complete recital available in the storybook, is well-indexed and easily accessible, and can also be played on the regular audio CD player.

Mr. V. Natarajan, the director of this project says it took almost a year to hone and blend the skills of multimedia development with the research expertise of the renowned scholar Pappu Venugopala Rao, who has scripted this massive work, to capture this epic on a CD. The narration in English is by Nikhil Kapoor whose solemn tone and sombre accent is appropriate. The Sanskrit slokas have been excellently rendered by M. Balamuralikrishna and Sowmya.

All facilities, functions and choices are operated by clicks on the menu on the control panel on the main screen to search for a particular item, just as one would use the index or contents page of a book. The search engine responds to queries, the Timeline option presents a chronological sequence while character index gives details about characters. It is also possible to capture a scene and save it as an image.

The animated version with audio synchronisation is visually appealing without any cartoon effect. Scenes like Hanuman with Sanjeeva parvatham, or the slaying of Tataka, or the battle of Rama and Ravana have been evolved with care and attention to detail with special effects which the descriptive richness of Valmiki's poetry affords. The CD claims as its interactive feature, the selective ability to browse the entire epic according to one's choice, and the offer of games and puzzles. And an added attraction is the special recital of Aditya Hridhayam. Its enclycopaedic nature is to be apprecaited, but it is limited because of time and space constraints.

PADMINI DEVARAJAN

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