The acclaimed film ‘Thamp’ (1978) by maverick Indian filmmaker Aravindan Govindan has been selected as the only Indian film to be screened in the Treasures Section of the BFI London Film Festival 2022.
The screening, which will take place on Friday, was sold out within a few hours of going live.
This year, the restoration was chosen for a red-carpet premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival as the only Indian film to have a world premiere in the festival’s Cannes Classic section.
The restoration has now been selected as the only Indian film to be screened in the Treasures Section of the BFI London Film Festival 2022, establishing yet another monumental achievement.
The son of the legendary filmmaker Aravindan Govindan, Ramu Aravindan, said: “It’s just wonderful that Aravindan’s restored ‘Thamp’ is getting screened at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. Thamp was screened at the 1979 London Film Festival. And, his next film, ‘Kummatty’, also recently restored, was screened at the 1980 edition. It’s special that this film is getting screened again after 43 years at the same event. I think the restoration brings back to life a very specific kind of visual-poetic sensibility that the present generation of film viewers may have heard about but couldn’t get to watch earlier.”
Aravindan Govindan’s ‘Thamp’ is a poetic, allegorical film that gently explores the transience of human relationships and the rootlessness of the marginalised through the ripples created by the arrival of a roving circus troupe in the bucolic existence of a village on the banks of a river.
Aravindan Govindan was a pioneer of New Indian Malayalam cinema in the 1970s and 1980s and one of India’s most extraordinary filmmakers. He was a true Renaissance man, having worked as a painter, cartoonist, musician, stage director, and filmmaker.
As an autodidact, his films were free of the constraints of film canon, with an entirely unique approach to cinema. He made 11 films and 10 documentaries in a tragically brief career spanning from 1974 to 1991, with almost all of his films receiving national or state awards.
(Inputs from IANS)