Director: Govindan Aravindan
Script: Govindan Aravindan, Kavalam
Cinematographer: Shaji N. Karun
Music: M. G. Radhakristan
Cast: Ramunni, Master Ashokan, Vilasini Reema
Production: General Pictures, Quilon
Distribution:
Fribourg Film Festival
Year: 1979
35 mm, B & W, 100 min,
OV With French Subtitles
Unreleased
The film is a Pied Piper-like figment of Malabar's folklore about a partly mythic and partly real magician called Kummatty (bogeyman).
Kummatty materialises from nature one day to mingle with and weave a spell of carefree abandon around the children of the village. Kummatty travels from place to place and entertains children with dancing, singing and performing magic. At one such performance at a village, Kummatty starts to mingle with and weave a spell of carefree abandon around the children of the village. He turns a group of children into animals. But one boy, who was changed into a dog, is chased away and misses the moment Kummatty changed the children back to their human form. The dog-boy has to wait a year until Kummatty returns to the village to get back his human form. All ends well and Kummatty melts back into nature. …
Aravidan's joie de vivre and peotry has never been as beautiful as in his 37th movie. The movie has been done on a shoestring with non-professional actors and animals. First thought as a kids' movie, it is rather a movie fro children from 7 to 77 years old.
The works of Aravidan are unique in Indian and contemporary world cinema. During his whole career, he tried to express complex ideas and feelings in a very simple way. We will fondly remind him as a poet, who brought joy even to people he didn't know.