The Tamil Language as More Central than Even the Gods: The Movie Thiruvilayadal (IN 1965) Is an Outlier as a Devotional Film

The narrow genre of devotional films in India follows a regular template - a combination of theophanic interventions, bhakti (devotional) worship and didactic narratives. Thiruvilayadal (The Divine Play, Akkamappettai Paramasivan Nagarajan, IN 1965), a film in Tamil (a language spoken across South a...

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Nebentitel:"Here Be Dragons. East Asian Film and Religion"
VerfasserInnen: Gopalkrishnan, Sreeram (VerfasserIn) ; Sreeram, Lekshmi (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie 2023
In: Journal for religion, film and media
Jahr: 2023, Band: 9, Heft: 2, Seiten: 127-142
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B Thiruvilayadal (Film) / Tamil / Drawida / Identität / Shiva, Gott / Darshan
RelBib Classification:AD Religionssoziologie; Religionspolitik
AG Religiöses Leben; materielle Religion
BK Hinduismus, Jainismus, Sikhismus
KBM Asien
TK Neueste Zeit
weitere Schlagwörter:B Religious Films
B Dravidianism
B Shaivism
B Tamil Language
B Darshanic Gaze
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The narrow genre of devotional films in India follows a regular template - a combination of theophanic interventions, bhakti (devotional) worship and didactic narratives. Thiruvilayadal (The Divine Play, Akkamappettai Paramasivan Nagarajan, IN 1965), a film in Tamil (a language spoken across South and East Asia by a large diaspora), was long considered a devotional movie that celebrated the God Shiva. However, a close analysis shows that the movie subverts the darshan concept (viewing) in a Hindu devotional film. Though it may appear to be a film about Puranic (mythic) Hindu gods, the subtle subtext reduces heavenly entities to supplicatory positions in relation to a cornerstone of identity in the post-independence Dravidianist Tamil State - Tamil language. This understanding of Thiruvilayadal is all the more relevant in light of the increasing rigidity of Hindu religious beliefs in contemporary India.
ISSN:2617-3697
Enthält:Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.25364/05.9:2023.2.7