-Jefferson The Magazine, Golden, CO, USA

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 BHU, Benares, India. A resident of Colorado, Mr. Sorcar 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, Co". This was the same year when Sorcar married his wife, Shikha. After the death of Mr. Butterwec 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 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 a text for Architectural Engineering at several universities for undergraduate courses including at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and PennState University, Pennsylvania, USA. 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 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, he helped in painting the backdrops and the lighting design for the various 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 two decades as a series of one-man-animated videos 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 latest “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 videos 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 was 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 - 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. The 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. Mr. Sorcar started getting 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 Mr. Sorcar'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 the cutting-edge lighting technology. His first laser animation "Calcutta Forever", an eight 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".

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 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 including Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and received critics' applause.

Manick's two daughters, Piya and Payal, co-direct and choreograph the dances for all the shows while his wife is the production coordinator and costume designer making this a true family production. His troupe, consisting of dancers of many different cultural backgrounds, have raised thousands of dollars for non-profits ranging from ones benefiting earthquake victims, adopted children, abused children and more. Sorcar even stepped in during the 9/11 tragedy and raised money to donate to the victims.

Manick is the president and a full time electrical engineer of his electrical consulting firm in Denver. How does he find time to do all these? "Creating miracle is my birthright!" he says smiling, "during the day I'm an engineer, at night I'm an artist, animator. I'm a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde except that I really need Mr. Hyde's work to make it through another day as Jekyll. Hyde charges my batteries". But isn't it tiring? "It is so fulfilling, there is no time to be tired. Animation is the best medium to attract and communicate with children of any age - it has no language barrier. And Laser is the cutting-edge technology. Through these I can take the children to India and teach them of the culture and fairy tale of another land – what can be more fulfilling than that?"

(Breaking news: March 27, 2008. International Laser Display Association has announced, the international panel of judges have unanimously selected Manick Sorcar's laser-art "Reflection" as the First Place in laser photography and has been awarded the "ILDA 2007 Artistic Award". He is the first Asian-American to receive the coveted award twice. For details, press here).