SELECTED PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMENTS
on Sorcar's Contribution to the Children's World

".... He is an institution when you think of his engineering alone - he holds a master's
degree in electrical engineering, an author of three engineering texts which are taught at the
universities, president of a busy engineering firm whose work has reached from the sky scrapers of USA to sport centers of Japan to the palaces of the princes of Saudi Arabia. Yet he finds time to be an artist. He is an accomplished cartoonist whose panels are published in international magazines, an honored artist of multi-media whose work received Critics' Award, an award-winning music director, and internationally acclaimed animator & animation film producer - shining brilliantly in each field . Welcome to Manick Sorcar's magic !"

-Paula Bachhas Teacher, Place Middle School Cherry Creek Drive, Colorado, USA

Beverly B. Title, St. Vrain Valley School District, Longmont, Colorado:

It is with great pleasure that I offer my congratulations on the outstanding job you have done producing Deepa and Rupa. When viewing it, I was delighted from beginning to end. It is a marvelous accomplishment which, I am sure, took tremendous dedication and a great deal of technical skill to complete.

The story line is timeless, teaching values which span generations. I am particularly interested in this video, because I am chairperson for Cultural Awareness Week in the St. Vrain Valley School District. In that capacity, I provide teachers in thirty schools with appropriate resources to use in their classrooms. I will be endorsing Deepa and Rupa for that purpose. It thrills me that you have selected this vehicle for sharing your native culture of India with English-speaking children, because it is easy for them to see that our cultures are not so different in the lessons that we teach our children. We do promote diversity as an asset, and the theme for our week's celebration is "Differences Create Possibilities." While I completely believe in the value of diversity, I still think that it is important for our children to recognize the common threads of our humanity. To me, Deepa and Rupa provides a good opportunity to learn about both. There are some obvious differences, such as the clothing, but these are really superficial. The morale of the story will be familiar to our students.

Once again, thank you for all of your labor. Deepa and Rupa is a treasure to me for all of the reasons above, and also because it was produced from your wish to share your native culture with us. That, in itself, is honorable.

Beverly Robbin, Cherry Creek School District, Colorado:

The video itself has great cross cultural value. It is an excellent blending of conventional art mixed with computer multi-media art/animation to tell a strong traditional fairy tale. It is extremely entertaining and presents a strong moral message, without being preachy. We have used it widely with kindergartners through third graders, and the result has always been extreme enthusiasm by the children, leading to provocative discussion. The acting and technical merits of the video are uniformly fine.

As the media specialist for our school, I have delighted in the boost Mr. Sorcar's video has given to the reading by students of other Indian fairy tales. I also serve as teacher on special assignment for social studies K-12 in the Cherry Creek schools. In this capacity, I especially welcome Mr. Sorcar's work for its positive impact on our district-wide theme through all grade levels of cultural diversity.

Gayle B. Hamlett, Cherry Creek School District, Colorado:

I previewed this film and found it to be a wonderful visual experience.… This film is a very positive reflection of Indian philosophy and would be a rich addition to a school district's multicultural resource library.

Video Rating Guide for Libraries, Vol.3, No. 1, Washington D.C., USA:

Four Stars. This video is aimed at children in the primary and intermediate grades.… Technically, the combination of actresses and animated, anthropomorphic characters works well.… The morals presented in this story will not go out of date and the video captures the flavor and fantasy of another culture. This video may be best suited to school libraries as an introduction to different cultures and their folklore and for public libraries….


 
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