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The success of the film has once again made Thampy the saviour of Mohanlal, who had been continuously failing to rise up to Malayalees’ sky-high expectations about him and had been stagnating in ustad-type characters for years. “I would say ‘Onnaman’ has helped Lal make a come back,” Thampy, who is doing the paper work of yet another Mohanlal-starrer, says. Even while enjoying the success of the film, Thampy feels sad that the Kerala media failed to bring out a healthy review of the film. “What they wrote was only gossip. There is no proper evaluation of the film. A writer or publisher is often influenced by his personal likes and dislikes of the director. In the same way, those who boast about being lovers of the so-called art films should not review a film like ‘Onnaman’ which is meant for the ordinary people,” he says.
“This time, they got a chance to criticise me as the film was produced by somebody else, not me,” Thampy, who is equally famous as a director and producer of big budget films, says. “You should know that a film’s success is the industry’s success and the industry’s success is media’s success. So, media should always be supportive to the industry which is facing a crisis now.” “I can’t say the number of film-lovers has decreased. But I will agree with you that the number of theatre-goers is decreasing. People get to watch even new movies on TV, cable, etc. So, it is the media’s duty to suggest ways to bring the profit to the producer even if people don’t go to the theatre,” Thampy, who owns a production and distribution company (Julia), says. Though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, there is a portrait of a young man whose sufferings and perseverance ultimately forced him into a maker of hits. Thampy traces the origin of his love for films to the colourful film notices which he used to collect as a six or seven-year-old boy. The son of a planter who hails from an orthodox family in Kanjirappally, Thampy felt in his younger days that there was unlimited freedom in the film world and he wanted to enjoy this.
As they were standing at the Central Railway Station to board a train to Kerala, Thampy felt that if he returned to Kerala, he would not be able to realise his dream and so he decided to stay back while his friend returned. He met Sasikumar again and the director allowed him to follow him to locations. In locations, Thampy began to do some voluntary work. He survived here for a year with the Rs 500 his parents sent every month. After a year, he found himself in a financial crisis. “At that time, I thought my parents deserted me, ” he says. Gradually, everybody in the set treated him as an assistant director and he found himself rising up as assistant director grade one, grade two, and grade three and at last as an associated director. “I didn’t know the difference between these categories. I worked obediently. Only when I was asked, I would express my opinion. This is a quality which is lacking now,” Thampy says. Thampy’s early independent directorial ventures like ‘Thaavalam’, ‘Passport’ and ‘Aa Neram Alpa Dooram’ were flops and producers gave him a wide berth.
Equally famous is Thampy’s next film, ‘Bhoomiyile Rajakkanmar’, which confirmed Lal’s position as a superstar. Then came films like ‘Vazhiyorakazhchakal’, ‘Indrajalam’, ‘Thudarkkatha’ (production only) ‘Kadalorakkattu’ (production only, directed by Thampy’s assistant Jomon) ‘Naadodi’, ‘Chukkan’ ‘Maasmaram’, ‘Sakshyam’ and ‘Panchaloham’ (production only). ‘Manthrikam’, which he produced and directed in 1995 after tasting some failures, sent a James Bond spirit throughout Kerala. “There are only two types of films - ‘odunnathum’ and ‘odaathathum’ (success and flop). I will produce and direct a film I can watch with my wife and daughters,” Thampy says. The image of Thampy in me is that of a director who holds art for life’s sake and, at the same time, who gives maximum entertainment without an iota of boredom. Salil Jose Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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Director Thampy Kannamthanam, who placed Mohanlal on the superstar throne with the all-time hit ‘Rajavinte Makan’, is now enjoying the runaway success of one more Lal-starrer, ‘Onnaman’. The film, released during Vishu, is still running to packed houses in Kerala “even without much publicity”.
“I don’t think a true filmgoer wants gossip. Those who want to enjoy a film and those who want to enjoy gossip are entirely different people.”
Realising that an easy way to enter the film world was by producing a film, Thampy came to Chennai with his friend, K M Mathew, who had experience in the production side. They met director Sasikumar and others. The duo was advised to go to Kerala and come back later.
"I realised that my failure was in the script. So I decided to produce and direct a film on a good script." And the film was ‘Rajavinte Makan’ which made “many people famous, including me”. The film created a new trend in the Malayalam film world and created a market for the audio cassette of the screenplay.
