''Thampu'' () is a
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
Indian
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
-language film written and directed by
G. Aravindan
Govindan Aravindan (23 January 1935 – 15 March 1991) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist, and painter. He was one of the pioneers of parallel cinema in Malayalam. He was known for his unorthodox way of filmma ...
.
Bharath Gopi
Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair (2 November 1937 – 29 January 2008), popularly known by the stage name Bharat Gopy, was an Indian actor, producer and director. He was one of the first actors to be associated with the New Wave cinema movement in ...
,
Nedumudi Venu
Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Ma ...
,
V. K. Sreeraman,
Jalaja
Jalaja is an Indian actress in Malayalam films who was active during the 1970s and 1980s. She had won Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 1981 for the movie Venal directed by Lenin Rajendran.
Perso ...
and the artistes of the ''Great Chitra Circus'' form the cast. The film deals with the roving street circus of
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
. It is shot in
black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
in a direct documentary mode.
In 2022, the film was selected for a world premiere in the Cannes Classic section of the
Cannes Film Festival 2022
The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is an upcoming film festival scheduled to take place from 17 to 28 May 2022. The festival will see a tribute to actor Tom Cruise, whose film ''Top Gun: Maverick'' is due to premiere at the festival. The offi ...
.
Plot
Besides a long glittering river some men raise a pole. A tent balloons up. Where there was wide sand and the sound of water lapping, there is now a truck, chairs, hoops, stools, ropes, goats, a lioness, a pair of fat girls, some bicycles, and an old man with a philosopher's dignity, putting on white paste.
Across a dirt road, the circus truck comes to a village. The tent goes up. Schoolboys run to the tent. Village women come and watch an acrobat roll a hoop across a tightrope. A lion leaps from the edge of one stool - across darkness - on to another stool. A gap-toothed old woman gazes at a goat on a tight rope; her eyes are wide with curiosity.
For three days the circus makes small ripples in the life of this village. Municipal permits are required. At a toddy shop, a soldier befriends the circus strongman; a pump attendant sits on a rock each day watching a village girl bathe and dry her hair. The dwarf brings back to the circus a watermelon larger than his head.
In the film's three days, we, the viewers, learn the geography of the village: the banyan tree with leaves like transparent film, the shining water, the light on the sand at sunset. When the circus leaves the village, it leaves us. The narrative says: The circus comes and leaves; life goes on.
Cast
*
Nedumudi Venu
Kesavan Venugopal (22 May 1948 – 11 October 2021), better known by his stage name Nedumudi Venu, was an Indian actor and screenwriter from Kerala, who predominantly worked in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 500 films, primarily in Ma ...
*
Jalaja
Jalaja is an Indian actress in Malayalam films who was active during the 1970s and 1980s. She had won Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Award for Best Actress in 1981 for the movie Venal directed by Lenin Rajendran.
Perso ...
*
V. K. Sreeraman
*
Bharath Gopi
Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair (2 November 1937 – 29 January 2008), popularly known by the stage name Bharat Gopy, was an Indian actor, producer and director. He was one of the first actors to be associated with the New Wave cinema movement in ...
Soundtrack
The music was composed by
M. G. Radhakrishnan and the lyrics were written by
Kavalam Narayana Panicker
Kavalam Narayana Panicker (1 May 1928 – 26 June 2016) was an Indian dramatist, theatre director, and poet. He has written over 26 Malayalam plays, many adapted from classical Sanskrit drama and Shakespeare, notably Kalidasa's ''Vikramorvasiy ...
.
Major awards
*
National Film Award for Best Direction
The National Film Award for Best Direction is an honour presented annually at India's National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Since ...
G. Aravindan
Govindan Aravindan (23 January 1935 – 15 March 1991) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist, and painter. He was one of the pioneers of parallel cinema in Malayalam. He was known for his unorthodox way of filmma ...
*
National Film Award for Best Cinematography
The National Film Award for Best Cinematography is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards p ...
Shaji N. Karun
Shaji Neelakantan Karun (born 1 January 1952) is an Indian film director and cinematographer. His debut film '' Piravi'' (1988) won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the premiere chairman of the Keral ...
*
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam
The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of seve ...
*
Kerala State Film Award for Best Direction
*
Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film
The Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film is an award presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India to the second best film in Malayalam cinema. The awards are managed directly by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy under ...
References
External links
*
Revisiting ''Thampu''- ''
The Economic Times
''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...
''
{{National Film Award Best Feature Film Malayalam
1970s Malayalam-language films
Films scored by M. G. Radhakrishnan
Films directed by G. Aravindan
Circus films
Films shot in Kollam
Films whose director won the Best Director National Film Award
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography National Film Award
Indian black-and-white films
Best Malayalam Feature Film National Film Award winners