Thampu

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.

• Nedumudi Venu
• Jalaja
• V. K. Sreeraman
• Bharath Gopi

The music was composed by M. G. Radhakrishnan and the lyrics were written by Kavalam Narayana Panicker.

• National Film Award for Best Direction – G. Aravindan
• National Film Award for Best Cinematography – Shaji N. Karun
• National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam
• Kerala State Film Award for Best Direction
• Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film
• Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Best Film[6]
• Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Best Director – G. Aravindan[6]
• Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematographer – Shaji N. Karun[6]
• Kerala Film Critics Association Award for Best Editor – Ramesan[6]

The restoration of the film was done by Film Heritage Foundation and Davide Pozzi, Director of L’Immagine Ritrovata. While there was no original camera negative, the team found that they could use a dupe negative struck from a 35mm print that was at the NFAI. A second 35 mm print was used for comparison. As per the condition assessment report prepared by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators, there were tears and broken sprockets in the films which were repaired by conservators. The other complication was that as the dupe negative was struck from a print. Saiprasad Akkeneni of the Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai, who was partner with the team on the restoration. They scan of both the print and the dupe negative at Prasad Studios in Chennai. The scanning of the picture and sound and the hours of manual work that went into the digital clean-up of the scratches and tears and the image stabilization was done at Prasad Studios.[7]

“Thamp̄u” had been shot in black and white by Shaji N. Karun on Indu Stock, an Indian brand of film stock that was manufactured in Ooty. The source material was in poor condition so the scanned film had thick black lines, very grainy images and required image stabilization. In the print – the blacks were very black and the whites were very white, with no mid-tones and no details of shadows. Both Ramu Aravindan and the cinematographer Shaji N. Karun, who shot the film.[8]

Aravindan was always very particular about the sound design in his films and the sound was especially crucial in “Thampu” as it was shot in a cinema-verité style with a cast primarily of non-actors of the circus troupe where the ambient sound and detailing and layering of small details like the sound of the water, the murmur of voices and the buzz of insects were integral to the artistry of the film. The sound restoration of the film was particularly difficult as there was no original sound negative. The film restoration was selected for a red- carpet world premiere at the Cannes Classic selection.[9]

After restoration the film has shown at the Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the BFI London Film Festival, the Film Restored Festival in Berlin and the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes. The film was also screened at the Museum of Modern Art and several universities in USA. In India, the film was screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala. At the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France in 2022 too the film played to full houses.[10]

• Thampu at IMDb
• Revisiting Thampu - The Economic Times