Kummatty(1979)

Director - G.Aravindan

*Contains Spoilers*
Saw this movie last Sunday..

IMHO this could have been a 30-45 minute film. The first half is really boring. we cant figure out whats happening. Only thing that's shown is children playing, attending class and all with lots of songs in background. All these are really dragging and makes us wonder where the story is. I was wondering whether there is one. Well there was one and a very good ending.

Set in a village, the film revolves around Kummatty(played by Ramunni) , Chindan and his friends- all around 7-10 years old. The children who are scared of kummaty in the first half of the film later befriends him. He even joins them in their plays .Then one day kummatty decides to leave the place and plays with the children for one last time.Kummatty, who is also a magician converts each of them into an animal for some time.Chindan gets converted into a dog and he runs away while the rest of them stays back. kummatty transforms each of them back to their original form except Chindan who had fled.Chindan has a long journey and reaches a house in nearby town where a girl likes him and keeps him as her pet. Now Chindan is caged and is always troubled by the other dogs in the house. he falls ill and her father offers a Pomeranian instead of Chindan.the girl lets Chindan go who runs back to his home.His mother recognizes him and he is treated the same was as he was a human.His parents try some rituals to transform him back to his old form but in vain. An year passes and Kummatty comes back and immediately transforms Chindan back to human.In the next scene Chindan frees his pet bird from the cage.

Read Aravindan's interview about the movie

Trivia -
According to this link Jacqueline Kennedy happened to see this movie and was impressed by the scenic beauty of Kerala. She soon visited the state

Shaji N Karun was the Cinematographer