Restored version of G. Aravindan’s classic Kummatty to premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato fest

The 1979-Malayalam release and classic Kummatty, helmed by G. Aravindan, is in the final stages of its digital restoration by Martin Scorsese’s program- The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in association with Film Heritage Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna.

A group comprising 20 people have been working on the same for the past four months at L’Immagine Ritrovata- a reputed laboratory in Italy to restore the movie. The film will premiere in the latter half of July at the II Cinema Ritrovato Festival which showcases classics and restored films.

The TFF was founded by Scorcese in 1990 aiming to protect and preserve the motion picture history. Meanwhile, the Film Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded by filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, set up in 2014, aiming the same. He travelled to Kollam to meet K Ravindranathan Nair of General Pictures, who was the producer of Kummatty. The producer then gave access to the prints from the NFAI (National Film Archive of India).

The classic movie is based on a Pied Piper-like figure from Malabar’s folklore called ‘Kummatty’(bogeyman). The character is believed to be half mythical and half real magician and travels from place to place to entertain children by singing, dancing and performing magic. The film portrays one such Kummatty and the main cast includes Ambalappuzha Ravunni, Ashok Unnikrishnan, Kottara Gopalakrishnan Nair and Kuttyedathi Vilasini. The movie has won Kerala State Film Award for Best Children’s Film.