#esthappan

Esthappan (1980) // dir. Govindan Aravindan

Esthappan (1980)

Govindan Aravindan - Esthappan (1980)

Esthappan (1980) // dir. Govindan Aravindan

Pokkuveyil (1981) // dir. Govindan Aravindan

Esthappan dir. G. Aravindan

After Kanchana Seeta (1977), the mythical dimension of Aravindan's cinema acquires a quasi-real, quasi-mythical character in Esthappan (1980). The protagonist of Esthappan hails from the Latin Christian fishermen community in Kerala. An enigmatic figure defying spatiotemporality, like many others in Aravindan's films resides at the periphery of society. In Aravindan's own words, ..."He was a very ordinary man. You understand Esthappan only through the stories people relate about him. There are people who tell one story in many different ways. In the film there is one person giving two stories of the same event. At this rate we don't know what is real and what is mythical. The issue here is which of the stories about Esthappan is right. Perhaps all of them are right, perhaps all are wrong." The film ends with a mythical dance play that embodies the essence of Esthappan which Ashish Rajadhyaksha identifies as Chavittu Natakam, a form derived from Portuguese passion plays that arrived on the Indian shores in the 16th Century with the arrival of Portuguese missionaries in Kerala. A drama derived from one such passion play, Jesus Cristo's Auto da Paixão influenced Manoel de Oliveira's Acto da Primavera (1963). Part of our Mythical Poetry: The Cinema of Govindan Aravindan at Close-Up Cinema. 

We don't know what is real and what is mythical. The issue here is which of the stories about Estheppan is right. Perhaps all of them are right, perhaps all of them are wrong…And so one story begins and merges into another. It is not the type of story with a beginning, progression and end.