Restoring ‘Kummatty’
A brilliant tribute to the work of one of the best directors in the Indian film industry. Today Malayalam films are considered one of the best in India. Thanks to OTT exposure, since the pandemic! People like Aravindan laid the foundations for the evolution of storytelling in the Malayalam movies - thankfully his films are being restored 👏🏼
1. His education, degree, or career did not interfere with his passion:
‘With a degree in botany, he took up a job with the Rubber Board in Kerala, traveling all over the state but making the time to paint oils and watercolors, learn Hindustani music from Sarathchandra Marathe in Kozhikode, and play a major role in establishing theatre groups in Kerala.’
2. He passionately pursued his hobby
3. The opportunity to direct a movie came to him. ‘Best careers are attracted, not chased’. And no one becomes anything ‘by accident’ — a movie director, or coach. We evolve to these roles, over a period of time, at times over multiple births.
‘As Aravindan narrates it, he became a filmmaker by accident. He and his playwright friend Thikkodiyan were trying to get funds to make a film written by Thikkodiyan. The writer Pattathuvila Karunakaran agreed to fund it on the condition that Aravindan would direct it. Despite Aravindan’s protests that he knew nothing about film-making except for the films he had watched and books he had read, Karunakaran was adamant. And that was how Aravindan’s first film, Uttarayanam (1975), came about.
4. Why it is critical to have hobbies
5. His Legacy
It won five Kerala State Awards and two National Awards. That was the beginning of a remarkable body of work by a filmmaker who was at the vanguard of the parallel cinema movement in Kerala and whose work was celebrated globally. ‘
🙏Grateful Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
