New Delhi: In another milestone for Indian cinema, noted filmmaker G Aravindan’s Malayalam film Thamp̄ (The Circus Tent), which was made 44 years ago in 1978, will be premiered in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival that will take place from May 17 to May 28.
The film has been restored by famous filmmaker, creative director, and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur whose organisation the Film Heritage Foundation has been restoring such old, and at times damaged, artwork diligently for many years. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is a well-known filmmaker of the country. His documentary Cellulite Man has received the National Film Award in the Best Biographical, Best Historic Reconstruction category in 2012.
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These days Shivendra is running Film Heritage Foundation in Mumbai. In 2010, and 2012, he also re-preserved the 1948 Indian film Kalpana in a similar fashion. This film was based on the imagination made at that time after the independence of India, how India would be in the coming times. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador of the Heritage Foundation and Jaya Bachchan is also associated with him in this work. Amitabh Bachchan congratulated Shivendra for his achievement by tweeting: "I am proud to hear this."
Bachchan expressed confidence that this step will prove to be a milestone in the journey of saving Indian film heritage. He said that it is an honor to have invited the film 'Thamp' to the Cannes Film Festival. Shivendra is very excited about the global premiere of his restored film Thamp̄ at Cannes. Thamp̄ has been jointly restored by the Film Heritage Foundation, World Cinema Foundation and Cinetica de Bolonia Sansthan.
The story begins in the village where a circus is held for the first time. How is the contact between the villagers and the circus artists? The characters keep on connecting. Thamp̄ was produced under the banner of K. Raveendran Nair's film company General Films. It was a black and white film, with both direction and screenwriting done by G Aravindam. Aravindam's film career was very short. He made only 16-17 films in his career, which were all unique in their own right.
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Speaking to ETV Bharat, Shivendra said he wanted to put such films in front of the world by restoring them again in their original form. He noted that this film will be screened in Balonia, Italy after Cannes. Shivendra has not only preserved films, but created photographs, scripts, table cinema tickets, projectors, cameras, poster tickets, gallery cards and many other items related to the lives of many filmmakers of India. In this sequence, he took up the work of film restoration. He, together with the famous archivist Martin Scorois of the World Cinema Foundation and the famous Italian organization Bolonia, did the restoration of Udayshankar's film 'Kalpana' made in 1948.
This film was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival. He has also reincarnated Sri Lanka's famous Dr. Lester James Paris' film 'Nidaniya' through his foundation. In 2020, he again along with the Film Heritage Foundation, World Cinema Foundation and D. Bolonia's Cinetica Sansthan decided to reincarnate two of the all-time great Malayalam filmmaker G. Aravindan's films Thamp̄ (1978) and Kumuthi (1979).
The Film Heritage Foundation is the only non-governmental organization in the country working in the field of film preservation. The Advisory Council of the Foundation includes eminent personalities like Shyam Benegal, Kamal Haasan, Girish Kasaravalli, Gulzar, Gian Luca Farinelli, Jaya Bachchan, Krzysztof Zanussi, Mark, Kumar Shahani among others.
