Manick Sorcar in 2009

Manick Sorcar (formal name Prafulla C. Sorcar), an electrical engineer from Bengal, India, came to the U.S. in 1970, received full tuition scholarship and earned a master’s degree at the University of Washington, Seattle. Earlier, he received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Benaras Hindu University, Benares, India. A resident of Colorado, he is the CEO/President of Sorcar Engineering, Inc., the roots of which was Howard W. Butterweck and Company, where Sorcar was first employed. In two years he became the vice president, when the company re-incorporated in 1974, taking him as one of the principals and changing the company's name to "Butterweck-Sorcar Engineering, Inc." This was the same year when Manick married his wife, Shikha. After the death of Mr. Butterweck in 2000, the company's name was changed to "Sorcar Engineering, Inc." of which he is the CEO/President.

Sorcar is the author of several texts on lighting design which are published by renowned publishers (Rapid Lighting Design & Cost Estimating, McGraw-Hill, 1979, was selected as a 'Book of the Month' by the Architects' Book Club; Energy Saving Lighting Systems, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983, a practical application oriented design/reference book; and Architectural Lighting for Commercial Interiors, John Wiley & Sons, 1987, is a popular design book which takes the impact of psychology, physiology, vision, and aesthetics in lighting design). The last two books have been in use as texts for Architectural and Illuminating Engineering at several universities for undergraduate and graduate courses including at the University of Colorado, Boulder, PennState University, Pennsylvania, and Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Over the last two decades, his innovative lighting design has reached several countries through projects such as the Palace for Prince H.H. Faisal Bin Sultan in Saudi Arabia; Shinurayasu and Musashi-Koshugi sport centers in Japan, Denver International Airport and Colorado Convention Center, USA.

Sorcar's love for art and science is something he inherited from his legendary father, late P. C. Sorcar, the world-renowned magician. As a youngster, apart from being a stage assistant, he helped in painting the backdrops and the lighting design for the various stage magic items, which led him to become an electrical engineer and artist. In the U.S., his art in many forms flourished simultaneously with engineering.

Over the last two decades he has produced a wide variety of unique arts, which had a strong appeal to people of all ages.

But his most notable art work came in the last three decades as a series of one-man-animation for children: "East-meets-West" (1986), "East-meets-West, II" (1987), "Two Songs from the East" (1987), "Deepa and Rupa: A Fairy Tale From India" (1990), "The Sage & The Mouse" and "Sniff" (1993), "The Woodcutter's Daughter" (1997), and “The Rule of Twenty-One”(2003), which are not only entertaining, but also educational for their cross-cultural values and innovative arts. In many of these films he uniquely mixed his hand-drawn art with computer-generated art and animation, and several with his animation mixed with live action - along with his original music, to represent the culture of his motherland in a most effective manner. The products were instantly acclaimed in the USA as a "bridge between East and West", got sensational response from the schools, rave reviews from the press, and a host of international awards. He has been a guest lecturer at many schools and universities around the country.

Each and every one of the hundreds of background scenes were painstakingly hand painted on paper and then frame-captured by a video camera, the moving animations were painted and developed directly on his personal computer - all in his studio in the basement. For three long years (1988-90) he religiously devoted his nights, weekends and all the time he could spare from his electrical engineering business to translate his dream into reality.

The hard work paid off. Since its premiere on the PBS Channel (KRMA-TV, Denver) on September 13, 1990, "Deepa & Rupa" was telecast in many parts of the world and received a host of awards including The Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival, The Golden Eagle by the Council on International Non-Theatrical Events (CINE), Washington, D.C., the Silver and Bronze Medals at the New York International Film and TV Festival, The Cindy Award, Los Angeles, and nominations in three categories for The Heartland Regional Emmy Awards, and a bag full of rave reviews. "Deepa & Rupa humanizes the machine,” said The Denver Post. "Comparing Sorcar's results with tape and computer to those more traditional animations seen on Saturday mornings, he (Manick) just about could be Hanna-Barbera" said the Daily Camera, and "A fairy tale ending for the Golden producer .... in a head-to-head competition, it topped the Children's Workshop's 'The Sesame Street' and Hanna-Barbera's 'The Greatest Adventure' said the Rocky Mountain News regarding the awards it received at the Chicago and New York International Film Festivals.

The productions with Indian stories and universal appeal did not go unnoticed. Schools found his videos to be "An invaluable material. Not only was it an important fairy tale for young children, but also had educational values for high school students studying the many uses of computers" said the Aurora Public Schools of Colorado. Manick started receiving a surge of requests from schools to make presentations of his art-videos and discuss the state-of-the-art technology on computer graphics and animation with the students.

All of his videos in general take the young audience to the world of children in India and introduce them to the culture, folklore, and values. "They are entertaining and educational," the academicians from various school organizations paid glowing tribute to Manick's accomplishments saying about the films "they make a rich addition to a school district's multicultural resource library," "an inspiration to our students," and "the storyline is timeless, teaching values which span generations."

Based on another story from the Panchatantra, "The Woodcutter's Daughter” was released on September 7, Sunday, 9 am, on KRMA-TV (PBS) channel six in Denver and its affiliated PBS stations around the State of Colorado. Like Deepa & Rupa this, too, was mixed with live action (Sorcar's younger daughter Payal was in the key role) and got rave reviews. At the New York Festivals it was a FINALIST in the Children's Program category. “Rule of Twenty-One,” his latest animation based on another nonsense poem by Sukumar Ray, received the Bronze Plaque at the 51st Columbus International Film Festival, Ohio, USA. It was premiered at Uttam Mancha theatre at Calcutta, India, on December 21, 2002 and at the PBS stations in USA on December 24, 2003.

Stapled as a 'must see' at the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) television stations, his cartoons got a new height when “Manick Sorcar: Animations that Teach Indian Cultures” was the topic of the research paper of Ms. Wendy M. Jensen, a student at the Savannah Collage of Art and Design at Savannah, Georgia, USA for her BFA (Bachelor in Fine Arts) with a double major in Animation and Visual Effects. Her paper, which included a thorough research and deep insight to his distinctive animation style, observed: “His unique and personal creative ideas exceed some of the large companies’ consistent styles which tend to be overly standard to the animation business. They (Sorcar's cartoons) are unique because his intentions are not to compete with commercial cartoons but to give Americans the insight to the folklore and culture of rural India. “

Always striving to create something new, Manick Sorcar's latest venture has been in producing animation with the help of laser beam - where he mixes two of his favorite subjects - art with cutting-edge lighting technology. His first laser animation "Calcutta Forever," an 8 minute show on the city of joy was a super hit at Calcutta, India, where it was screened with his other animation films on the Millennium New Year's day inside "Nandan," the prestigious theater of the city. On public demand the show was extended to seven days, twice daily, and hit national news recording it as "The First laser animation on an Indian theme, screened inside a theater."

A scene from his show in the USA

"Dancing with My Soul"

"Voices of Colorado: Perspectives
of Asian Americans"

"World of ManicK Sorcar"
by Roma Sur.

"East Meets West" by Wendy Luna

Receiving the Bharat Samman Award.

In 2001, he lifted the bar for his laser technology when he showcased a live dancer in combination with a life size, on stage, laser-animated figure of her, entitled “Dancing with My Soul” for the first time in the USA. Since then this super hit show along with many other items have created sensations around the world. The life size laser figure interacts with the dancer creating a truly multi-media production. "Like da Vinci," wrote The News Record of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, "Sorcar is nothing short of a renaissance man. By combining laser beams, animation, computer graphics, magic and traditional Indian dances, Sorcar manages to create an awe-inspiring Indian fantasy world." A string of very creative laser shows, performed in a wide variety of prestigious venues followed after this: "Feel Like a Kid Again" at the Pepsi Center indoor stadium (opening show for the football match between Colorado Crush and Grand Rapids Rampage), "Celebrate Denver" at the Opening Ceremony of the $350 million dollar Denver Convention Center, "Back to the Future" for the Gold Rush XVIII at the Two-River Convention Center of Grand Junction, USA, etc. Yet the top award came in 2006, when his "Enlightenment of Buddha," an extravaganza of dance-drama-magic in combination with laser graphics and overhead visual effects won the First Place and bagged the 2005 ILDA Artistic Award for "best use of lasers in a live stage performance" at the ceremony held at Rimini in Italy on March 13. ILDA (International Laser Display Association) awards are considered as the industry's equivalent of Hollywood's Oscars. "Enlightenment of Buddha" was first performed at the Silver Celebration 25th Anniversary of the Asian Pacific Development Center (APDC), Denver Center for Performing Arts, attended by dignitaries from across the nation.

On September 10, 2008, he received his second ILDA Artistic Award for the laser photography of his laser art "Reflection." He is the first Asian-American to receive the coveted award twice. For details, press here.

Sorcar’s art and animation have been the subject of numerous articles, academic research papers, and books. For his simultaneous contribution to art and science, he was acclaimed as "the Renaissance Man of our time" in the book "Voices of Colorado: Perspectives of Asian Americans" by Nestor Mercado, Elnora Minoza-Mercado, and Alok Sarwal. In 2009, he was the subject of the book "World of Manick Sorcar: Where Art Becomes Magic" by Roma Sur, and in 2010, he was the subject of another book "East Meets West: The Animation of Manick Sorcar," by Wendy Luna. In the Foreword of the latter book , John W. Hickenlooper, the then Mayor of Denver - now the honorable Governor of Colorado, wrote "…This book is indeed a treasure in the multicultural wealth of our great nation. It is a tribute to Manick Sorcar, whose animation for the last two decades has both entertained and educated us about India, her culture, her people - all together, a true cultural bridge between East and West, which has made Denver, the United States and India proud."

On January 10, 2011, Manick Sorcar was bestowed with the "Bharat Samman (Honor of India): Achievers Award 2010", at the XXI Annual Meet NRI Divas 2011 of the NRI Institute, New Delhi. He received the prestigious award from the hands of Sri Pawan Kumar Bansal, the Honorable Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, in the presence of Maharani Preneet Kaur, the Honorable Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Govt. of India.

Until their marriage, Manick's two daughters, Piya and Payal, were the co-directors and choreographers of the dances for all the shows while his wife is the production coordinator and costume designer making this a true family production. His shows, consisting of dancers of many different cultural backgrounds, have raised thousands of dollars for non-profits such as earthquake victims, adopted children, abused children and more. Manick even stepped in during the 9/11 and Tsunami tragedy and raised money to donate to the victims.

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........................................ Manick Sorcar

What started as an attempt to bridge the cultural gap at home for two little girls, ended up to be the cultural bridge between East and West, bringing him a host of prestigious awards and international recognition. Years ago, he decided not to do stage magic as he was more allured to art and lighting. But magic is in his blood, and creating miracle is his birthright. He keeps on hypnotizing the world with his own brand of magic with materials such as fine arts, cartoons, animations, laser arts, and world-touring stage shows of live action mixed with laser animation at his fingertips.