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Tamil Cinema Hitherto, the academic study of Indian cinema has focused primarily on Bollywood, despite the fact that the Tamil film industry, based in southern India, has overtaken Bollywood in terms of annual output. This bookexam- ines the cultural and cinematic representations in Tamil cinema. It outlines itshistoryanddistinctivecharacteristics,andproceedstoconsideranumber ofimportantthemessuchasgender,religion,class,caste,fandom,cinematic genre, the politics of identity and diaspora. Throughout, the book cogently links the analysis towider social, political and cultural phenomenain Tamil and Indian society. Overall, it is an exciting and original contribution to an under-studied field, which also facilitates a fresh consideration of the exist- ing bodyof scholarship on Indian cinema. Selvaraj Velayutham works in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. His research interests include migration, trans- nationalism,andTamilcinemaandculturalstudies.Hehaspublishedworks on South Indian diaspora, home and belonging, and living with diversity. Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia Series Editor: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald Institute for International Studies, University of Technology, Sydney Editorial Board: Devleena Ghosh University of Technology, Sydney Yingjie Guo University of Technology, Sydney K.P. Jayasankar Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay Vera Mackie University of Melbourne Anjali Monteiro Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay Gary Rawnsley University of Nottingham Ming-yeh Rawnsley University of Nottingham Jing Wang MIT The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of media, culture and social change in Asia. 1 Television Across Asia 5 Media and the Chinese Diaspora Television industries, programme Community, communications formats and globalisation and commerce Edited by Albert Moran and Edited by Wanning Sun Michael Keane 6 Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and 2 Journalism and Democracy in the New Global Cinema Asia No film is an island Edited by Angela Romano and Edited by Gina Marchetti and Michael Bromley Tan See Kam 3 Cultural Control and 7 Media in Hong Kong Globalization in Asia Press freedom and political Copyright, piracy and cinema change 1967 2005 Laikwan Pang Carol P. Lai 4 Conflict,TerrorismandtheMedia 8 Chinese Documentaries in Asia From dogma to polyphony Edited by Benjamin Cole Yingchi Chu 9 Japanese Popular Music 13 Television in Post-Reform China Culture, authenticity and power Serial dramas, confucian Carolyn S. Stevens leadership and the global television market 10 The Origins of the Modern Ying Zhu Chinese Press The influence of the protestant 14 Tamil Cinema missionary press in late Qing The cultural politics of India’s China other film industry Xiantao Zhang Edited by Selvaraj Velayutham 11 Created in China 15 Popular Culture in Indonesia The great new leap forward Fluid identities in Michael Keane post-authoritarian politics Edited by Ariel Heryanto 12 Political Regimes and the Media in Asia 16 Television in India Continuities, contradictions and Satellites, politics and cultural change change Edited by Krishna Sen and Edited by Nalin Mehta Terence Lee Tamil Cinema The cultural politics of India’s other film industry Edited by Selvaraj Velayutham First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” # 2008 Editorial selection and matter; Selvaraj Velayutham; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any for m or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infor mation storage or retrieval system, without perm ission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Tamil cinema : the cultural politics of India’s other film industry / edited by Selvaraj Velayutham. p. cm. (Routledge media, culture and social change in Asia series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Motion picture industry India Tamil Nadu. 2. Motion pictures Social aspects India Tamil Nadu. 3. Motion pictures India Tamil Nadu. I. Velayutham, Selvaraj, 1968 PN1993.5.I8T28 2008 302.230 43095482 dc22 2007036110 ISBN 0-203-93037-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 9780415396806 (hbk) ISBN 9780203930373 (ebk) For Amanda and in memory of Sathiavathi Chinniah (1970–2007) Contents List of figures xi List of contributors xii Acknowledgements xv Introduction: the cultural history and politics of South Indian Tamil cinema 1 SELVARAJVELAYUTHAM 1 A goodwoman, averygoodwoman: Tamil cinema’swomen 16 C.S.LAKSHMI 2 The Tamil film heroine: from a passive subject to a pleasurable object 29 SATHIAVATHICHINNIAH 3 Bringing the Amman into presence in Tamil cinema: cinema spectatorship as sensuous apprehension 44 KALPANARAM 4 Politics and the film in Tamil Nadu: the stars and the DMK 59 ROBERTL.HARDGRAVE,JR. 5 The nurturing hero: changing images of MGR 77 SARADICKEY 6 Tamil cinema in the public sphere: the evolving art of banner advertisements in Chennai 95 PREMINDAJACOB 7 Encountering a new art: writers’response to cinema in Tamil Nadu 111 S.THEODOREBASKARAN