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...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:  
Détails bibliographiques
Autres titres:"Here Be Dragons. East Asian Film and Religion"
Auteurs: Gopalkrishnan, Sreeram (Auteur) ; Sreeram, Lekshmi (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
En cours de chargement...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Institut f. Fundamentaltheologie 2023
Dans: Journal for religion, film and media
Année: 2023, Volume: 9, Numéro: 2, Pages: 127-142
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Thiruvilayadal (Film) / Tamoul / Drâvidas / Identité / Shiva, Dieu / Darshan
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
AG Vie religieuse
BK Hindouisme
KBM Asie
TK Époque contemporaine
Sujets non-standardisés:B Religious Films
B Dravidianism
B Shaivism
B Tamil Language
B Darshanic Gaze
Accès en ligne: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Résumé: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
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal for religion, film and media
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.25364/05.9:2023.2.7