ABSTRACT

Tamil Cinema in the Twenty-First Century explores the current state of Tamil cinema, one of India’s largest film industries. Since its inception a century ago, Tamil cinema has undergone major transformations, and today it stands as a foremost cultural institution that profoundly shapes Tamil culture and identity. This book investigates the structural, ideological, and societal cleavages that continue to be reproduced, new ideas, modes of representation and narratives that are being created, and the impact of new technologies on Tamil cinema. It advances a critical interdisciplinary approach that challenges the narratives of Tamil cinema to reveal the social forces at work.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

Tamil cinema in the twenty-first century: continuities and changes

part 1|50 pages

Caste

chapter 1|17 pages

Contested narratives

Filmic representations of North Chennai in contemporary Tamil cinema

chapter 2|16 pages

Conscripts of cinema

The dangerous and deviant Third Wave

chapter 3|15 pages

Being Dalit, being Tamil

The politics of Kabali and Kaala

part 2|78 pages

Gender

chapter 4|15 pages

When Madhi dances like Dhanush

Gender representations in Irudhi Suttru

chapter 5|15 pages

Redefining the mass hero

The rise of the engineer as ‘hero’ in contemporary Tamil cinema

chapter 6|16 pages

White is the new brown

Constructing Amy Jackson as a desirable object in Tamil cinema

chapter 7|15 pages

Misogyny

A content analysis of break-up songs in Tamil films

chapter 8|15 pages

Religiously middle class

Ammaṉ films and the new middle class in contemporary Tamil Nadu

part 3|64 pages

Technology

chapter 9|14 pages

Will the real Kollywood fan please stand up?

Tamil film fandom in the new millennium

chapter 10|18 pages

Post-millennial Tamil cinema

Transitional generation and the traces of continuity

chapter 11|15 pages

A rumble in the movie halls

Cinema in the ‘orphaned’ state

chapter 12|15 pages

Tamil platform cinema