Table of Contents

Introduction: The Cultural History and Politics of South Indian Tamil Cinema Selvaraj Velayutham 1. A Good Woman, A Very Good Woman: Tamil Cinema’s Women C.S. Lakshmi 2. The Tamil Film Heroine: From a Passive Subject to a Pleasurable Object Sathiavathi Chinniah 3. Presencing the Amman in Tamil Cinema: Cinema Spectatorship as Sensuous Apprehension Kalpana Ram 4. Politics and the Film in Tamil Nadu: The Stars and the DMK Robert Hardgrave 5. The Nurturing Hero: Changing Images of MGR Sara Dickey 6. Tamil Cinema in the Public Sphere: The Evolving Art of Banner Advertisements in Chennai Preminda Jacob 7. Encountering a New Art: Writers Response to Cinema in Tamil Nadu Theodore Baskaran 8. Cinema in the Countryside: Popular Tamil Film and the Remaking of Rural Life Anand Pandian 9. Imaginary Geographies: The Makings of ‘South’ in Contemporary Tamil Cinema Rajan Krishnan 10. Encounters with ‘India’: (Ethno)-Nationalism in Tamil Cinema Vijay Devadas and Selvaraj Velayutham 11. The Diaspora and the Global Circulation of Tamil Cinema Selvaraj Velayutham

About the Author

Macquarie University, Australia