Thrift Call from Python fails

[Abhishek Kona]

Hi

I am trying to make a thrift call, using Python I always get this error 
message:

  self._oprot.writeMessageBegin('record', TMessageType.CALL, self._seqid)
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'writeMessageBegin'

I am sending a binary parameter in the thrift call.
Is this an issue with thrift  0.2 (the version I am using).

-Abhishek Kona