Manick Sorcar (formal name Prafulla Chandra "P.C." Sorcar) is an

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

artist, animator, engineer, and laserist. Sorcar is an artistThe Animator
(Trans World Features, Interview, 2004) in various media, including fine arts, cartoons, animations, laser arts, and world-touring stage shows with live action mixed with laser animation. His animated films, all based on children's stories from India, have won prestigious awards at international film festivals and been broadcast on the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

for 25 consecutive years.Manick's Animation Films on US TV Stations
(Pravasi Today, 2010)Colorado Governor Honors Manick Sorcar
(India.com, 2015) His laser arts and animation in various forms have won global awards from the

International Laser Display Association The International Laser Display Association (ILDA) is the worldwide non-profit trade association and is dedicated to advancing the use of laser displays in art, entertainment and education. It was founded in August 1986. ILDA sponsors an annual con ...

Early life and background

Sorcar was born on 29 November 1944. He is the eldest son of legendary Indian magician, the late

P.C. Sorcar Protul Chandra Sorcar (23 February 19136 January 1971) was an Indian magician. He was an internationally active magician throughout the 1950s and 1960s, performing his ''Indrajal'' show before live audiences and on television. Sorcar died of a ...

Manick Sorcar Wins for Rule of Twenty-One
(

The Statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

, 2004) and Basanti Devi. He has two older sisters, Ila and Gita, and two younger brothers Prodip and Provas, both of whom are magicians. He is married to Shikha Devi and has two daughters,

Piya The ''Piya'' (; "Increased ra") was a Chinese dictionary compiled by Song Dynasty scholar Lu Dian ( 陸佃/陆佃, 1042-1102). He wrote this ''Erya'' supplement along with his ''Erya Xinyi'' (爾雅新義 "New Exegesis of the ''Erya''") comment ...

and Payal. In his youth, Sorcar was a stage assistant for his father's world-touring magic shows, where he also painted backdrops and designed the stage lighting. He chose not to pursue magic as a career as he was more interested in lighting and art, in which he also saw forms of magic. After receiving his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (first class) from the

Indian Institute of Technology, BHU Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi (IIT BHU) is a public technical university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1919 as the Banaras Engineering College, it became the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu Univers ...

, he wanted to see more of the world and came to the United States to pursue higher education in lighting technology and to practice art. He earned his master's degree in electrical engineering from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

.Animate Magic
(

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, 2006)

Career

Engineering

Sorcar started his professional career as an engineer at Howard W. Butterweck and Company, an electrical consulting engineering firm in Denver, Colorado. After two years, he became a partner, and the firm changed its name to Butterweck-Sorcar Engineering, which later became Sorcar Engineering. Over the course of 40 years under Sorcar's leadership, the company flourished, and completed numerous multimillion-dollar projects, including the

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , locally known as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , it is the largest airport in ...

, the

Colorado Convention Center The Colorado Convention Center (CCC) is a multi-purpose convention center located in Downtown Denver, Colorado. At 2,200,000 square feet (total space) it is currently the 12th largest convention center in the United States. It opened in June 19 ...

, and several sport centers in Japan and Saudi Arabian palaces. During this time, Sorcar authored three widely-used books on lighting design, used as textbooks in US and Indian universities.

Laser art and animation

Sorcar first shot to fame in the nineties when his '' Deepa & Rupa: A Fairy Tale from India'', India's first animation mixed with live action, received the Gold Plaque at the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

in 1990 and was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

1991 Emmy Nominees
/ref> in 1991, and ''The Sage and the Mouse'' won the Gold Medal at the International Film Festival of New YorkManick Sorcar: Building bridges through art and animation
(OnlyPunjab.com, 2005) in 1993. Other animated films he created include ''The Woodcutter’s Daughter'', which was a finalist at the International Film Festival of New York; ''Sniff'' (''Gandha Bichar''), which received the Golden Eagle from

CINE Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...

; and ''The Rule of Twenty-One'', which won the Bronze Plaque at the

Columbus International Film Festival The Columbus International Film + Animation Festival is a Columbus, Ohio, United States annual film festival which is designed to encourage and promote the use of film and video in all forms of education and communication. It is the first and ol ...

. Starting in 1999, he began to create new forms of animation using lasers as a medium. His ''Calcutta Forever: A Laser Fantasy'' was recorded as the first laser-documentary screened inside a movie theater. In 2000, he received the ''Excellence in Art Plaque'' from the National Federation of Indian American Associations in New Jersey, for his laser shows ''Dancing with My Soul'' and ''India Forever''. Hosted by the Indian Consulate General of San Francisco for India's 61st

Republic Day Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics. List January 1 January in Slovak Republic The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially cal ...

celebration on 26 January 2010, his laser documentary ''Our Republic's Birth'', which captured India's history starting from 3300 BCE to its independence from the British and proclamation as a Republic Dominion was shown at the historic

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.India Republic Day 2010
(India West, January 2010) In 2012, he produced '' Swamiji'', an hour-long laser documentary on

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...

, which was praised by the critics,

Ramakrishna Mission Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the ''Ramakrishna Movement'' or the ''Vedanta Movement''. The mission is named after and inspired by th ...

s and Vedanta Societies around the world for its accurate depiction of Swami Vivekananda's life. The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah, India said "It was as if he was painting the events of Swamiji's life with a paintbrush before our eyes. It was fascinating." about the show which took place on 31 January 2014 at

Belur Math Belur Math () is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India. The t ...

campus, attended by 15,000 people.

Filmography

* '' Deepa & Rupa: A Fairy Tale from India'' (1990) * ''The Sage and the Mouse'' * ''The Woodcutter’s Daughter'' * ''Sniff (Gandha Bichar)'' * ''The Rule of Twenty-One'' * ''Calcutta Forever: A Laser Fantasy'' (laser documentary) * ''Our Republic's Birth'' (2010) (laser documentary) * '' Swamiji'' (2012) (laser documentary)

Honors and awards

Sorcar is a three-time winner of the ILDA Artistic Award from the

and is also the first Indian American to ever win this award. He first won in 2006Prestigious award for creator of Buddha laser show
(The Buddhist Channel, 2006) for his ''Enlightenment of Buddha'', which mixed live-performance with life-size laser animation and three-dimensional visual effects on stage and won the First Place at the 2005 International Laser Display Association award contest. His second win was in 2008,ILDA honors LaserLight Magic photography with 2007 Artistic Award
(LaserFocusWorld, 2008) for the laser photography of his laser-art ''Reflection'', which won First Place for laser photography at the 2007 ILDA award contest. His third win was for the innovative application of lasers in his production ''Light Art in Shower Ocean'', which won first place at the 2015 ILDA contest. His 2017 laser animation, ''Beautiful Mess'', won an Award of Merit at the Accolade Global Film Competition. Sorcar has received a number of honors, including the ''Bharat Samman Achievers Award''NRI Institute Achievers Award
(NRI Institute, 2011) at the XXI Annual Meet NRI Divas 2011 of the NRI Institute in New Delhi. In 2011,

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

opened the ''Manick Sorcar Laser Animation Laboratory''. Sorcar donated laser lab equipment worth more than US$100,000 and introduced the first laser animation course at the university as a special application of lighting for degrees in illumination engineering.Wizard of light brings magic of laser to JU
(

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

, 2011) On 6 November 2013, at

Aalen Aalen () is a former Free Imperial City located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is also the large ...

, Germany, he was bestowed with the ''Special Achievement Award for Cultural Enlightenment'' from the

for exceptional merit in using laser display to celebrate India's heritage, and to prepare the next generation by introducing a course on laser art and animation and establishing the Manick Sorcar Laser Animation Laboratory at

. On 24 May 2014, at

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

, India, he received the ''IIT-BHU Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award'' for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Cultural and Enlightenment through Science and Arts. In 2015, during the Silver Jubilee celebration for the 25th anniversary of his animation broadcast on PBS, the

Governor of Colorado The governor of Colorado is the head of government of the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's state government and is charged with enforcing state laws. The governor has the power to either app ...

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 20 ...

congratulated Sorcar by writing:

References

External links

Official Site

LaserLight Magic

Sorcar Engineering

Indian Magicians Web Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorcar, Manick American people of Indian descent American businesspeople American Hindus American animators Indian animators American animated film directors Indian animated film directors Indian emigrants to the United States Banaras Hindu University alumni University of Washington College of Engineering alumni Bengali male artists Bengali film directors American people of Bengali descent Bengali writers Living people Artists from Denver Bengali Hindus Manick 1944 births