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With the Tamil film in the U.S.
A still from Gnana Rajasekaran's "Bharati".
Back in Madras after eight weeks in the U.S., opening windows on the Tamil film is polymath Theodore Baskaran, who might have retired as Postmaster General, Tamil Nadu, but is better known as an environmentalist, wildlife enthusiast, heritage buff, director of the Roja Muthiah Research Library and Tamil film historian and scholar. At Ann Arbor in the U.S., he offered a six-week, 36-hour course at the University of Michigan's Center for South Asian Studies on "A Society Through Celluloid: Tamil Cinema and Its Audience", screened Tamil films to larger audiences for discussion, and spoke on the Tamil film at various fora.
In class, Baskaran discussed such aspects of the Tamil film as mythology ("still very much part of the scene, to judge by the superheroes that dominate Tamil film stories"), politics, the power of dialogue, song and dance, and women in film and society. He would certainly have been a hit with his lectures on politics, dialogue and superheroes, which undoubtedly would have reflected his book, The Message Bearers: The Nationalistic Politics and Entertainment Media in South India 1880-1945. The best book on the Tamil film I've read, it is time the publishers, Cre-A, reprinted their 1981 maiden English language publication, bringing it up-to-date as well.
The two-credit course, attended by a dozen students from several countries, was part of a three-month long focus on South Asian film and society by the Center's Asian Languages and Cultures Programme. Describing the course, a note stated that, "Tamilnadu has the highest rate of exposure to cinema in India... Tamil films are a factor in cultural identity... and its emergence as a major cultural preoccupation underscores the significance the role of cinema has in Tamil Society."
The note went on, "Over the years, films have become essential instruments ... for manipulation of its target population. A number of film actors took active part in politics and entered legislative bodies, both at the State and at the Centre level. All the five Chief Ministers of Tamilnadu since 1967 have been associated with cinema... Other political parties, such as Leftists, also used film for propaganda. In the process, Tamil films were politicised, playing significant roles in political mobilisation and political activism. This phenomenon, ... has evoked academic curiosity and a number of studies have been undertaken ... This course proposes to look at Tamil cinema as a social, cultural and political phenomenon... "
Apart from clips and films screened during the course, Baskaran showed for a wider audience Gnana Rajasekaran's "Bharathi", Rajiv Menon's "Kandukondein, Kandukondein" and Balu Mahendra's "Sandhya Ragam". His other lectures included one on `The Music of Tamil Film Composer Ilaiyaraja" and it turned up a surprise: the considerable knowledge several Americans present had of the composer's work!
During the course, while narrating the history of Tamil cinema, Baskaran would undoubtedly have mentioned the first cinema theatre in South India, "a large corrugated iron shell with a brick façade", built by Warwick Major and Reginald Eyre.
Acquired in 1915 by the Postal Department to raise the Main Mount Road Post Office in its grounds, the Electric, as it was named, was used for years as a postal services godown. What Baskaran would have probably left unsaid was that when he was PMG, he had the building restored and in 1998, it was inaugurated as the City's Philatelic Bureau, with exhibition space as well. Whether it's film or post offices, heritage has always been Baskaran's long suit.
S.MUTHIAH
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