Kummatty, a bogeyman and magician, appears each year to the children of a village on the Malabar plains. With his scrawny silhouette and fake beard, his name is spoken to inspire fear, or celebrated in songs. One day, on one of his visits, he transforms the children into animals… in the words of Govindan Aravindan, Kummatty “arrives like the seasons. He represents spring and arrives when the rain is over, when the plants are in bloom. He is part of Nature.” With its warm colours, the childlike excitement, the panicked fantasy of transformation through to the film’s elegant conclusion, the film is as much a tale as a singular piece of music that draws directly on the rising sap. FM
Restored print
