K. Balachander: An Innovative Filmmaker

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathiavathi Chinniah
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Tamil Cinema ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractThis study aims to contribute to existing literature on Indian cinema by exploring the works of K. Balachander. An academic enquiry into K. Balachander's films is justified given his presence in the Tamil film industry for some 40 years and the numerous awards he had obtained over this period for his filmic contributions, including the prestigious Padmashree Award which he won in 1987. In the bigger study of which this is a small part, I also study female representation in his films, as well as how various groups of audience interpret the portrayal of women in three specific films directed by him. Keeping in mind the varied audience groups of Tamil cinema, three different groups have been selected for this purpose, namely the rural and urban audiences in India and the diaspora audience in Singapore. Emphasis on the audience allows this study to build on earlier research on the reception of films at the point of consumption. I hope in this to provide a new perspective on audience reception of female portrayals in Tamil films.

Representing Terrorism

2015 ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
Omar Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Urban Violence ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
The Third ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Tamil Cinema ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Film Making ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores Mani Ratnam's 1998 film Dil Se (From the Heart) to engage critically with changing representations of terrorism in contemporary Indian cinema. Mani Ratnam is recognised by many critics and the Indian film industry as one of its finest and most commercially successful film-makers. Dil Se was Ratnam's first Hindi film and the third part in a loose trilogy of films dealing with the relationship between nationalism, terrorism, and urban violence. The chapter then looks at regional film-making in India, particularly Tamil cinema. It also considers Mani Ratnam's concerns as an auteur, the music of Dil Se and composer A.R. Rahman, and perhaps most importantly, the impact the film had at the UK box office with the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) audience.

INDIAN FILMS IN GLOBAL CONTEXT - MONEY OR CREATIVITY!

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Dr. Gurudutta Japee
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Main Stream ◽  
The South ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Tamil Cinema ◽  
Hindi Cinema ◽  
To Come ◽  
National Boundaries

‘Art does not go global because its creator is consciously working towards a worldwide impact.’ It ought to be straightforward to present a description of the ‘world’s biggest film industry’, but Indian film scholars find it difficult to come to terms with its diversity and seeming contradictions. The biggest single mistake that non-Indian commentators make is to assume that ‘Indian Film Industry ’ is the same thing as Indian Cinema. It is not. The Indian film industry is always changing and as traditional cinemas close in the South and more multiplexes open, there may be a shift towards main stream Hindi films. But the South is building multiplexes too and it is worth noting that Hollywood distributors have started to release films in India dubbed into several languages. India's various popular cinemas are not all alike, and the differences among them are not restricted to language. They address different identities; the language communities sometimes transcend national boundaries, as when Tamil cinema is followed avidly in Malaysia. "Bollywood" is a recent, global appellation, but mainstream Hindi cinema tried to address national concerns even under colonial rule. When the English-spoken media in India clamour for a better quality of cinema, what they desire is a cinema that is forged in the Western tradition of storytelling and narrative.

scholarly journals The power of Bollywood: A study on opportunities, challenges, and audiences’ perceptions of Indian cinema in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110226
Author(s):  
Yanyan Hong
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Star Power ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Cultural Connections

India has long been known for its prestigious Mumbai-based film industry, namely Bollywood, and remains by far the largest producer of films in the world. With the growing global reach of Indian cinema, this study looks at an intriguing Indian-film fever over the last decade in the newly discovered market of China. Through examining key factors that make Indian films appealing to Chinese and exploring the opportunities and challenges of Indian cinema in China, this article draws upon insights gained from the narratives of local audiences. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 Indian-film audiences residing across 14 different cities in mainland China. Thematic analysis identified the following five appealing factors, which explain why the Chinese enjoy Indian films: content-driven story, social values, star power, audience reviews and cultural connections. While a comprehensive list of opportunities was derived showing the potential future of Bollywood in China, results found that China’s unique institutional context and an ongoing India–China geopolitical tensions also present challenges, which in turn add to the overall complexity of films’ success in the Chinese market. This article argues the powerful role of Bollywood in bridging cultures and improving India–China ties, as Indian films have made Chinese people more aware of India in a favourable way.

Placing Singapore in East Asian Pop Culture

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chua Beng Huat
Keyword(s):  
Administrative Support ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Local Television ◽  
National Wealth ◽  
Local Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Production Company

Within Pop Culture China, Singapore with its small and multi-ethnic population is essentially a location of consumption of Chinese languages pop culture. Consequently, Mandarin singers from Singapore have to debut their careers in Taiwan, actors have to seek greater exposure and better prospect in Hong Kong and, while local television stations produce a substantial quantum of television dramas annually, only a trickle of this is exported to Southeast Asian neighbours with less developed media industries. However, with its new found national wealth, the local media industry, with the financial and administrative support of the government, have been seeking co-production opportunities regionally. Unfortunately, the state-financed production company, Raintree Productions, operates entirely on commercial basis in search of profit rather than with an ambition of developing local talents and film industry. Methodologically, as predominantly a consumption location, Singapore is an advantageous location to research audience reception practices and formation of transnational pop culture community.

scholarly journals A Reading of Bhabendra Nath Saikia's Films from Feminist Lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-274
Author(s):  
Minakshi Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
The Third ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
The World ◽  
Images Of Women

Feminist movement deconstructs the constructed images of women on the screen as well. The gap between real and reel woman is a vibrant topic of discussion for the feminist scholars. As a regional genre of Indian film industry Assamese film flourished during the third decades of twentieth century. Like the films of other parts of the world, Assamese films also constructing the image of woman, particularly Assamese women, in its own way of projection. Hence, this article is an attempt to explore the questions related to women’s representation by taking the films of Assamese director Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia as reference. Moreover, as per the demand of the article it will cover a historical overview of the representation of women in Indian cinema and Assamese cinema. Different theories from psychoanalysis and feminism will be applied to analyze the select movies.

Unruly Cinema

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rini Battacharya Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
First Century ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hindi Cinema ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Systematic Exposition

Unruly Cinema is a meta-history of Indian cinema’s emergence and growth in correspondence with the colonial, postcolonial, and the neoliberal state. Indian popular cinema has grown steadily from the largest national film industry to a global cultural force. Between 1931 and 2000, Indian cinema overcame Hollywood’s domination of the Indian market, crafted a postcolonial national aesthetic, resisted the high modernist pull of art cinema, and eventually emerged as a seamless extension of India’s neoliberal ambitions. The major agent of these four shifts was a section of the Hindi cinema produced in Bombay, which came to be named and marketed as Bollywood in the twenty-first century. Through a systematic exposition of four historical periods, this book shows how Bollywood’s current dominance is an unlikely result of unruliness, that is, of a disorganized defiance of norms. Perpetually caught between an apathetic and adversarial government and an undefined public, Indian commercial cinema has thrived simply by defying control or normalization. The aesthetic turns of this cinema are guided by counter-effects, often unintended and always unruly.

scholarly journals Marxist Feminism: An Analysis on Class Structure and Position of Women in Malayalam movie -“Chemmeen”

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Ann Rose Davis
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Primary Focus

The Malayalam film industry, prominently known as “Mollywood,” is one of the fast-changing faces in Indian cinema. This paper tries to examine one of the Malayalam movies, Chemeen, through the lens of Marxist Feminism. The primary text chosen for the study is the movie, Chemeen, an adaptation of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s novel with the same name. The story revolves around the lives of Karuthamma and Pareekutt, lovers whose life cannot be led together because of the strong influence of caste and class in their society.  This is one of the liberal texts in Malayalam Literature narrating the Kerala fishing community’s lives, customs, traditions, and beliefs. The research paper’s primary focus will be on society’s hierarchy through the reflection of Mollywood cinema, the stereotyping of certain characters based on their class and caste, the aftermath of marriage, and the domineering male-centric society female fellowships through deities.

scholarly journals “Cultured Women” do not act in films: Tracing Notions of Female Stardom in Bombay Cinema (1930s–1950s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 2050012
Author(s):  
PRIYAM SINHA
Keyword(s):  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Bombay City ◽  
Film Making ◽  
Ideological Construction

Women were absent from the archives and rendered as invisible within the film business that was changing the urban landscape of Bombay city in the 1930s through talkies. Questions were raised about female sexuality and respectability primarily due to a morality discourse closely associated with women acting in films. Tension, moral panic and distress had emerged from the dominant stigma regarding films making industries being a heterosexual and hybrid workspace. Moreover, an economy that capitalizes on voyeuristic pleasures of its male audience by objectifying women’s bodies. So, even though it offered women higher salaries unlike other professions, it was deemed as “dangerous” for women. Therefore, “cultured women”, essentially from the upper class, were discouraged from being a part of the studio film industry situated in the cosmopolitan Bombay city. Taking forward Neepa Majumdar’s (2009) dialogue on the denial of agency to women in Indian cinema, this paper traces the incorporation of feminist agenda into film making. This paper is limited to studying the biographical, autobiographical details and picturization of three eminent actresses: Nargis, Kanan Devi and Durga Khote. Further, I would elaborate on the struggles undertaken by them and the roles they played in films in order to deconstruct the notion of female stardom and an “ideal Indian woman” picturized in Bollywood from the 1930s–1950s. This period holds relevance in film historiography due to the ideological construction of female stardom that had its pros and cons which I would be discussing in depth through the paper.

scholarly journals Remapping the Visual Contours: An Enquiry into the Film Narratives of Adoor Gopalakrishnan

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
Simi Varghese
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
World Languages ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Master Craftsman ◽  
Satyajit Ray

Adoor Gopalakrishan has been the greatest film director who had elevated Malayalam film to the level of World Cinema. Truly, he is the master craftsman of Indian cinema second only to Satyajit Ray. He had discovered the identity of Malayalam through his visual narratives. He had metamorphosed each film as an experience and eked out a new visual repertoire for Malayalam films. Hitherto, no serious study has been conducted to absorb the visual magnificence of Adoor films. Concerted efforts have been initiated in other Indian languages and world languages to trace the visual dynamics employed in Adoor films. When foreign film critics approach his films seriously, even today we often falter to imbibe the film sensitivity and culture kickstarted by Mr Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Still, he is the ‘unravished fragrance’ of Malayalam film industry. Adoor has been truly one of the masters of world cinema and had carved a special niche for him in the global film map. My paper tries to portray the new visual fervor inculcated by Adoor films in the Malayalam psyche and will unravel the subtle nuances which deeply touch the labyrinthine milieu of Malayalam film world.

scholarly journals Analysis of Audience Reception on Youtube towar d Gender Construction in the Music Video If I Were a Boy by Beyonce Knowles

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Ria Avriyanty
Keyword(s):  
Functional Space ◽  
Gender Construction ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Digital Text ◽  
Cyber Culture ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Similar Kind

<p>Youtube is one of the favorite sites to share videos. Moreover,it facilitates the users to give a free and�direct comment toward the videos they watch. The research examines the music video entitled If I Were a�Boy (2010) by Beyonce Knowles as well as the authentic responses from the viewers in Youtube. I argue<br />that this music video creates a conventional gender construction which perpetuates the patriarchal�norms in the society. As an attempt to give a new perspective on the similar kind of research, I do�not stop at this point. Applying the concept of encoding-decoding by Stuart Hall (1973), I found the<br />audience�s being critical which can be seen from the total number of the responses and the controversy�within. In accordance to the three hypothetical position argued by Hall, I found a different portion of�the audience in each position. As a matter of fact, this phenomenon contributes to the cyber culture in�which Youtube is seen as a functional space to make meaning of a digital text and negotiate with the�constructed stereotype by giving responses.</p>

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