Manick Sorcar

Manick Sorcar
Born	Tangail, Mymensingh, British India
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, University of Washington
Occupation	Artist, animator, laserist, engineer
Religion	Hindu
Spouse(s)	Shikha Devi
Children	Piya Sorcar, Payal Sorcar
Parent(s)	P.C. Sorcar, Basanti Devi

Manick Sorcar (formal name Prafulla Chandra "P.C." Sorcar) is an Indian American artist, animator, engineer, and laserist based in Denver, Colorado, USA who was a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi.

Sorcar is an award-winning artist^[1] 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 for 22 years.^[2] He first shot to fame in the nineties when his Deepa and Rupa: A Fairy Tale From India, India's first animation mixed with live action, received the Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1990, and The Sage and the Mouse won the Gold Medal at the International Film Festival of New York^[3] in 1993. After this, his Calcutta Forever: A Laser Fantasy was recorded as the first laser-documentary screened inside a movie theatre. 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 celebration on January 26, 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 in San Francisco, California.^[4]

In 2012 he produced Swamiji, a laser documentary on Swami Vivekananda, which was praised by the critics, Ramakrishna Missions 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 campus, attended by 15,000 people.^[5]

Sorcar is the first Indian-American to receive the ILDA Artistic Award twice from the International Laser Display Association. The first^[6] was in 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. The second^[7] was in 2008, for his laser-art Reflection, which also won First Place for laser photography at the 2007 ILDA award contest.

In 2012, Sorcar retired from Sorcar Engineering,^[8] a Denver-based electrical engineering and lighting firm which did the lighting design for the Denver International Airport concourses, sport centers in Japan, and several Saudi Arabian palaces. He retired from engineering in order to devote himself full-time to his art productions. As an author in the field of electrical engineering, he has written several popular lighting design texts. He received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University (now Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi).^[9]

Sorcar’s art and animation have been the subject of numerous articles, academic research papers,^[10] 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 (ISBN 0615202136) 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 (ISBN 1607252899), by Roma Sur,^[11] and in 2010 East Meets West: The Animation of Manick Sorcar (ISBN 0578054043), by Wendy Luna.^[12]

Sorcar has received a number of honors, including the Bharat Samman Achievers Award^[13] at the XXI Annual Meet NRI Divas 2011 of the NRI Institute in New Delhi. In 2011, Jadavpur University 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.^[14]

On 6 November 2013, at Aalen, Germany, he was bestowed with the Special Achievement Award for Cultural Enlightenment from the International Laser Display Association 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 Jadavpur University.^[15]

On 24 May 2014, at New Delhi, India, he received the IIT-BHU Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Cultural and Enlightenment through Science and Arts.^[16]

Sorcar is the eldest son of legendary Indian magician, the late P.C. Sorcar.^[17] As a young man, he helped his father create unique lighting effects for his world-touring magic shows, but never took up stage magic as a profession as he was more interested in doing his own brand of magic with art and lighting. He is married to Shikha Sorcar, and has two daughters, Piya and Payal.