Celluloid Deities: The Visual Culture of Cinema and Politics in South India

by Preminda Jacob

Overview

Towering billboards featuring photorealistic portraits of popular cinema stars and political leaders dominated the cityscape of Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Studying the manufacture and reception of these billboards—known locally as banners and cutouts—within the context of the entwined histories of the cinema industry and political parties in Tamil Nadu, Preminda Jacob reveals the broader significance of these fragments of visual culture beyond their immediate function as pretty pieces of advertising.

Jacob analyzes the juxtaposition of cinematic and political imagery in the extra-cinematic terrain of Chennai's city streets and how this placement was pivotal to the elevation of regional celebrities to cult status. When interpreting these images and discussing their political and cultural resonance within the Tamil Nadu community, Jacob draws upon multiple perspectives to give appropriate context to this fascinating form of visual media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739110607
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	10/23/2008
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Preminda Jacob is associate professor of art history and theory in the department of visual arts at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Table of Contents

1 Table of Contents
2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction: Of Painters, Politicians, and Film Stars
Chapter 4 1. Chennai's Banner Industry Artists and their Methods
Chapter 5 2. Cooperation and Conflict in Chennai's Visual Culture: Financiers, Artists and Their Audiences
Chapter 6 3. Tamil Cinema: History, Celebrities, Genres
Chapter 7 4. Cine Signs: Semiotics of Chennai's Cinema Banners
Chapter 8 5. The Coalescence of Tamil Nationalism and the Cinema Industry
Chapter 9 6. The Political Cutout: Celebrity and Cult in Tamil Nadu
Chapter 10 7. Darshan and Cinematic Spectatorship
Chapter 11 8. The Future of Chennai's Visual Culture
12 Bibliography
13 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

A scrupulously-researched and thoughtful study of film hoardings and cutout figures in Chennai, South India, the book reveals deep interconnections between cinema and regional politics at work in modern South Asia. Jacob’s fine-grained analysis of these spectacular hand-painted ephemera makes visible a ‘temporal’ network between cinematic spectacle and religious vision, charisma and public culture, and commerce and art, promising to spark debates in many disciplines that have recently turned to an interest in vision, visuality, and the global public sphere.

Ajay Sinha

Another book that also deals with an understudied aspect of Indian cinema is Preminda Jacob’s Celluloid Deities: The Visual Culture of Cinema and Politics in South India (Lexington Books 2008). Most of the scholarship on Indian cinema has focused on Hindi cinema—aka “Bollywood,” to the neglect of the rich diversity of filmmaking in other languages in India – and primarily on the narrative elements and thematic significance of these films rather than their associated material and visual culture. Jacob’s book deals with the vibrant visual culture associated with Tamil cinema and its very intense culture of celebrity by focusing on the production and reception of the gigantic, hand-painted billboards that advertise films and the towering portraits of political leaders that dominate the urban landscape of Chennai.

New York Review Of Ideas- Best Books On Bollywood

In this substantial book, Preminda Jacob profiles what has become a rare form of public art. Celluloid deities examines the art of banners and cut-outs used to publicize films and political parties in Tamil Nadu. The book draws on extensive fieldwork and interviews carried out by the author among the patrons, artists and viewers of the art. The process of commissioning, producing and placing the art is discussed at length

Celluloid deities is based on thorough research into the process of producing the art and relates that art to the aesthetics and political economy of Tamil cinema. The book is worth buying and reading for the first four chapters alone. The part of the book, Chapter 3, which deals with the evolution of Tamil cinema, should be a mandatory read for all students of Indian cinema.

In addition to the many photographs which illustrate the argument effectively, a much larger range of colour photographs can be viewed on the author’s very well designed website at: http://www.celluloiddeities.com. Celluloid deities is a fascinating and well-written book based on much original research. It merits a wide readership among those interested in visual culture, cinema and politics in South Asia.

Contemporary South Asia