''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 CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 ...

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 wa ...

-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 filmmak ...

. Bharath Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, V. K. Sreeraman, Jalaja 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 Ca ...

. 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.

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 * Jalaja * V. K. Sreeraman * Bharath Gopi

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

M. G. Radhakrishnan Malabar Gopalan Radhakrishnan (29 July 1940 – 2 July 2010) was an Indian music director and Carnatic vocalist from Kerala. Personal life M. G. Radhakrishnan was born on 29 July 1940 at Haripad, in Alappuzha district, Kerala as the eldes ...

and the lyrics were written by Kavalam Narayana Panicker.

Major awards

* National Film Award for Best Direction

* National Film Award for Best Cinematography

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 Kerala ...

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 sev ...

* Kerala State Film Award for Best Direction * Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film

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 bu ...

'' {{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