Vartmaan is an animated television series which aired on DD National during 1994-1995. Bhimsain was the director and the producer along with animation director Kireet Khuran. This is one of the first Indian animated television series produced using 3D animation.
Vartmaan aims to teach the younger generation moral lessons on how to develop one's conscience and control one's weaknesses. The leading character, Purush meaning man, fights against the evil Sankat, meaning trouble and his own negative emotions, and ultimately wins over his Vartmaan meaning present. Several characters are animated using 3D. There are twenty-six episodes, each with a running time of thirteen minutes.
The Climb Media did the production work for this animated series. The story shows Purush, as he tries to get back his lost kingdom, Vaartman, from the enemy, Sankat. Purush is an ordinary person trying to overcome his weaknesses. Through his struggles, he experiences different emotional states that Sankat takes advantage of by creating negative human-like manifestations that fight with Purush's willpower using Purush's negative emotions. Sometimes Purush's power is weakened as he listens to his negative thoughts. Therefore, to protect him from this, his positive emotions come from within to help him in his battle. These positive emotions give the strength to Purush to face his difficulties. He hopes to defeat Sankat one day once and for all. As the serial follows, Purush encounters many manifestations from Sankat's evil humanoid army. It is still not known how the story ends.
Purush
Purush is the lead of the story. His struggles to achieve his goal of defeating Sankat show the problems posed by negative emotions such as hate, anger, greed, pride, jealousy, and sadness. Purush's willpower to win is tested throughout the series. Sometimes he excels in defeating Sankat's negative humanoid army, while other times he fails and loses his self-confidence. Aided by his positive emotions, he fights Sankat and his negative emotions. Purush is a role-model for the viewers.
Sankat
Sankat is Purush's main enemy. He can create negative real-life forms of emotions and manipulate humans. He represents the negativity that human emotions hold. His goal is to conquer and rule over Purush's willpower for eternity. Kaloota, a crow assists Sankat by spying on Purush's activities. Sankat has the appearance of a powerful human being having horns on his head; his hands look like scorpions. He is a 3D animation character with scorpion-like hand movements.
Friends of Purush
Some of the names of Purush's friends are Vishwas meaning Self-Belief, who is Purush's guru, Saahas meaning Courage, Gyan meaning Knowledge as a horse, Yukti meaning Strategy as a female head, Anand meaning Happiness, Doordershita meaning foresight one with magnifying glass, Aasha meaning hope, Atit meaning past, and many more positive manifestation of Purush's inner self.
Negative humanoids
Some of the forms manifested from Sankat are Irsha meaning jealousy, Lobh meaning greed, Dukh meaning sadness, Ahamkaar meaning arrogance, Bhay meaning fear, Aalas meaning laziness, Krodh meaning anger, Adchanay meaning obstacles, and many more. The army of negative humanoid emotions continually attacks Purush. The challenge for him is to take help from his inner self to defeat the negative emotions.