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Trailer

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About:

If I Raised My Mother is a 2-minute film that was born out of an argument I once had with my mother. I’d told her that I would break the cycle of unhappy parent-child relationships someday, and she said, "It's not as easy as you think it is". This film is my take on what I would've done differently if I had raised my mother.

   Sometime within the first month of production, I realised that my mother was right. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was. I had to reexamine everything that happened and try to understand why it happened. And so, the film became a little less of ‘I wish I was raised better’, and a little more of ‘I wish I could’ve done this for Mother when she was growing up’. This is a film I made for myself, and for all other Indian daughters, my mother included.

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   If I Raised My Mother is a hand-drawn 2D digital animation film made primarily using TVPaint. It was written, animated and produced over five months. The music for the film was composed by Wenshan Yu from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The art style used in the animation is inspired by children’s picture books and kid-lit art styles. This was a film made and fueled by my love for my mother. Every colour I picked, every line I drew, speaks exactly of that.

Production of the Film

Style Exploration

When we visited the British Library and Museum as a part of the course, I spent these two days exploring a style I thought would be fitting for my film. I wanted it to be simple, expressive and inclusive of body types.

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And once I knew how to simplify my characters, I wanted to explore what more I could do for the visuals of my film.

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I’ve always loved looking at kid’s picture books and admired artists who can flawlessly exaggerate and put perspective with kid-lit art styles and I wanted to give that a try. 

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Character Designs

   I had two pointers for myself going into the character design stage of the film – make them stand out. Make them stand out in each scene.

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   And so I designed characters that are colourful but on a limited palette. I experimented with various themes and eventually landed on 10 different palettes as seen in the final film.

Colour Story

Next - over two months, I gradually figured out the colour story of the film. The scenes in the first half are brighter, and more cheerful while the scenes in the second half get moodier and less vibrant while remaining colourful. The opening and closing shots of the film have the same colour palette.​​

Backgrounds

Roughs

Clean Up

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Screenings & Awards

If I Raised My Mother was first screened at the Central Saint Martins 2024 grad show. It was one of the 51 graduate projects nominated for the MullenLowe NOVA award.

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It was further shortlisted after being presented to the judges, and 'If I Raised My Mother' was awarded both - the overall MullenLowe NOVA winner and the winner of the Your NOVA public choice award.

WINNER - Best Short Animation - Best Mothers Day Short Film Festival - 2025.PNG
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