Restored version of G Aravindan’s Thampu to be screened in Cannes Classic section

Thampu, which released in 1978, had Nedumudi Venu, Bharath Gopi, VK Sreeraman, and Jalaja in pivotal roles. Thampu tells the story of a travelling circus which has dug its tents at a village. Shot in a documentary narrative style, the film gives insights into the village’s geography, lives of villagers, and their interactions with people from the circus group.

The film won Aravindan the National Film award for best direction while Shaji N Karun won the National award for best cinematography.

In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, Shivendra Singh Durgapur has said that restoring an Indian film is a more laborious task than making a new movie. “I first watched G Aravindan’s movies when I was studying in FTII, Pune. It was PK Nair who introduced us to Aravindan’s movies. After watching movies like Esthappan, Kanchana Seetha, Thampu, I realised that Aravindan was a filmmaker with unique identity and strong visual language. He uses a poetic narrative style and represents Kerala’s culture in an unparalleled way. Another specialty of his movies was that his movies communicated more through silence and used very little dialogues,” he had said.

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