Kummatty

Kummatty
Directed by	G. Aravindan
Written by	G. Aravindan
Produced by	K. Ravindran Nair
Starring	Ramunni Master Ashok Vilasini Reema
Cinematography	Shaji N. Karun
Music by	M. G. Radhakrishnan G. Aravindan
Release date	12 July 1979 (1979-07-12)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Kummatty (English: The Bogeyman) is a 1979 Malayalam film written and directed by G. Aravindan. Ramunni, Master Ashok and Vilasini Reema form the cast.^[1]

Plot[]

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.

Cast[]

• Ambalappuzha Ravunni
• Ashok Unnikrishnan
• Kottara Gopalakrishnan Nair
• Kuttyedathi Vilasini

Soundtrack[]

The music was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan and Kavalam Narayana Panicker and the lyrics were written by Kavalam Narayana Panicker.^[2][3]

Awards[]

• Kerala State Film Award for Best Children's Film

Legacy[]

In 2012, filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia included the film in his personal top ten (for The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time poll), writing: "G. Aravindan – the most interesting Indian filmmaker ever. Sadly none of his work is in distribution."^[4]

2021 Restoration[]

In July 19,2021 The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, a program created by filmmaker Martin Scorsese in 2007, the Film Heritage Foundation and Italy-based Cineteca di Bologna collaborated to restore the film which had lost its rich color palette over the years with Scorsese notably saying: “Aravindan was a visionary director and Kummatty is considered among his greatest work. The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project will share this film with the wider audience it deserves, making it a true cinematic discovery." The film was restored at the L’Immagine Ritrovata lab in Bologna, Italy, and had its world restoration premiere at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival later that month.^[5][6]

References[]

External links[]

• "Aravindan's profile". India Film database. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
• Sashi Kumar (25 January 2010). "Aravindan's art". Frontline. Archived from the original on 20 October 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2011.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Kummatty at IMDb

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