An online film journal for Indian Cinema
In the dialogue-less opening to Aravindan’s 1978 film Thampu, an open-air truck filled with seemingly ordinary people weaves it way languidly through the sunlit coastal roads of Thalassery, Kerala. This close-knit travelling circus, made up of a troupe of intrepid misfits and fantasists, have habitually made this journey before, living out a transient existence of… Continue reading Thampu / The Circus Tent (Dir. Govindan Aravindan, 1978, India/Malayalam)
When Shivagami (Smita Patil) arrives at a Mooraru government run farmhouse in Niligri as a newly wedded bride she is enamoured by the mountainous landscapes and in these fleeting moments of rapture Aravindan carves and crafts this awakening as a synchronic event that ties Shivagami to nature, an elemental conceptualization. Chidambaram is structured as a… Continue reading Chidambaram (1985, Dir. Govindan Aravindan, India [Tamil])
Aravindan’s 1979 feature film Estheppan (Stephen) is a companion piece to Kummatty, also released in 1979. Estheppan, a mythical entity conjured by a Christian fishing village in Kerala, materialises magically in the contested narratives of the village folk. It is the restful Keralan coastline Aravindan turns to as a natural landscape from which Estheppan emerges.… Continue reading ESTHEPPAN (Dir. Govindan Aravindan, 1979, India)
A Video Essay in 3 Chapters on Govindan Aravindan's 1979 film Kumatty (The Bogeyman, India) - Nature | Topography | Magic This new video essay looks at a few of the aesthetic and thematic ideas in the work of Aravindan's Kumatty (1979). There seems to be a lot of Indian films which are being restored, occasionally playing… Continue reading VIDEO ESSAY: THE POETICS OF ARAVINDAN
Movie Mahal 