PICKLED MEMORIES

In an AI-driven era, Rachel Tom Antony’s 14-minute hand-drawn animation Kannimanga is a meditation on memory and the quiet, enduring bonds of her grandmother's silence.

- S KEERTHIVAS

At atime when AI is rapidly remaking the creative landscape, even reimagining mythological epics through algorithms, Rachel Tom Antony, a Communication Design student at ITAD, Delhi, has chosen to look inward. Her 14-minute animated short, Kannimanga, recently won Best Student Film at the ASIFA India Awards of Excellence, one of the country’s most respected animation honours. Every frame of the film is crafted slowly, deliberately and most importantly, hand-drawn.

Rachel grew up in the UAE, but her roots lie in Kerala, where her family returned each year to visit her grandparents. Her grandfather passed away when she was just a year old; her grandmother, meanwhile, remained a distant, enigmatic presence. Family gatherings buzzed with chatter, yet Rachel recalls always finding her grandmother tucked away in a corner, reading or writing in her journals.

That physical closeness but emotional distance would later become the heart of Kannimanga.