India / 1979 / 90 min
Director：G.ARAVINDAN
A village in the state of Kerala. Soon after an irate old woman warns a band of prank-loving kids that “Kummatty (the bogeyman) is coming for you”, a mysterious grey-haired man arrives in their village. The kids are intensely curious about the man, and before long he becomes a local celebrity. On the day of his departure, he casts a spell on the children, transforming them into animals. Shortly after, he changes each of them back into human form except for one boy who had turned into a dog and ran off before the spell could be broken…
In the Malabar region of Kerala, the character of “Kummatty” is akin to the legend of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”. G. ARAVINDAN wrote and directed the film based on a stage pro-duction by Kavalam Narayana PANICKER.
This version was restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Film Heritage Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with General Pictures and the family of Govindan Aravindan.
- Image Courtesy: Film Heritage Foundation.
