Western University Scholarship@Western Digitized Theses Digitized Special Collections 2011 CINEMA OF THE SOCIAL: STARS, FANS AND THE STANDARDIZATION OF GENRE IN TAMIL CINEMA Ganga Rudraiah Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses Recommended Citation Rudraiah, Ganga, "CINEMA OF THE SOCIAL: STARS, FANS AND THE STANDARDIZATION OF GENRE IN TAMIL CINEMA" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3315. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3315 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Digitized Special Collections at Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digitized Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CINEMA OF THE SOCIAL: STARS, FANS AND THE STANDARDIZATION OF GENRE IN TAMIL CINEMA r , ' (Spine title: CINEMA OF THE SOCIAL) (Thesis Format: Monograph) by : Ganga Rudraiah Graduate Program in Film Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Ganga Rudraiah 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION r Supervisor Examiners Dr. Christopher E. Glttings Dr. James Prakash Younger Supervisory Committee Dr. Constanza Burucúa Dr. Chris Holmlund The thesis by Ganga Rudraiah entitled: Cinema of the Social: Stars, Fans and the Standardization of Genre in Tamil Cinema is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board Abstract The star machinery of Tamil cinema presents itself as a nearly unfathomable system that produces stars and politicians out of actors and fans out of audiences in an organized fashion. This study is invested in determining a specific mode of star films in Tamil cinema as a unique genre by itself. These films from the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India typically frame and deify the male actor as a star. I argue that the stars in Tamil cinema are not icons for a genre; rather they are the genre themselves. The assimilation of fans into the process of genre formation is based on an established partnership between the industry and the audiences. This research study diagnoses star-centric cinema as cinema of the social in terms of genre, cinematic populism, mythification, identification, star spectacles, melodramatic masculinity and fan-driven organized spectatorship. Keywords: Tamil Cinema, Stars, Fans, Spectatorship, Genre. in For Amma and Nana IV Acknowledgements My brother and I were deprived children - deprived of cinema. It was not that difficult for us to see the irony in such a parental restriction. A filmmaker himself, my father had conveniently weaned us away from the 'evil of cinema'. During the years I grew up in Madras, with little or no exposure to television and cinema, I had missed out on a significant part of popular culture. While we got short lectures.after watching films of Godard or Bergman and were taken to film screenings at the American Library, Tamil films were a taboo subject. I was once scolded for gossiping about Tamil stars with friends in the neighbourhood. I would like to ^ ‘ ' " ' ................................................. think this research study on the popular stream of films in Tamil Nadu as my own little protest against the opinionated palate my parents had instilled in me - a humble attempt to retrace my belonging to the fervent culture of cinema in Madras. I have to confess that I have not lost sight of the sense of disgust my father held for Tamil film spectacles. Needless to say, his perspective motivated me to objectively understand the function of the 'popular/ and its meanings dispersed through Tamil films. In many ways, I am here because of my father's incessant pushing to think 'differently' from the 'mainstream.' I thank him for all the love, care and freedom. This project would not have been possible without the constant guidance and incredible patience of my supervisor and mentor Prof. Chris Gittings. My learning process with him has been the most enriching experience in my academic life. Much of my thesis was formulated as answers to the difficult and pertinent questions that were posed by Chris relating to Tamil cinema and its currency with theory, and domestic and global media discourses. I am extremely grateful for his kind criticism of my writing style, helping my work sound more scholarly. I owe all my future scholarly accomplishments to his training. v I have also benefited from communicating with everyone at the department of Film Studies at Western about Tamil films and their conceptual and entertaining features. I thank Prof. Margaret DeRosia for her classes helped me find a firm ground in research methodology for the thesis. Her feedback was foundational to the clarity of my main arguments. With Prof. Joe Wlodarz's input on my thesis proposal, I realized that I had to consistently focus on the whole, while I make close-analyses of star texts. I am also grateful to Prof. Chris Holmlund for suggestions to revisit genre theory to find supportive material for the star genre. I would also like thank my colleagues Chris, Ryan, Jeff, Adam and Zoran for useful peer reviews of my work. I greatly appreciate Jen Tramble for all her help to make me feel at home in the department and ease into the University system as an international student. I owe thanks to the thesis examination committee for their comments and appraisals of my work. I thank Prof. James Prakash Younger for his encouragement and enthusiasm in evaluating the thesis. His expertise on South Indian cinema paved way for compelling discussions during the examination. I am also grateful to Prof. Constanza Burucua whose detailed comments strengthened the thesis during final revisions. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Arunmozhi for his timely help in arranging interviews with j directors and journalists. I immensely value the conversations with fans of Rajnikanth and Vijay. Their narratives on being a fan modified many arguments regarding spectatorship. I also would like to thank the most ardent fan of Rajni, my Uncle Mr. Srinivasan for helping procure images of fan posters. Finally, I thank Suresh for all our discussions and disagreements we have had on star films. His expansive knowledge on Tamil film history and his own political critique of Tamil film texts have tremendously influenced the investigation of film trends in this thesis. I also want to VI thank him for all the sweet distractions that kept me in good health and peace during the course of writing the thesis. Table of Contents Certificate of Examination ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements . v Chapter I Introduction: Star, Genre and Tamil Cinema: Connotations with Theory and 1 Context 'Indian'Masala and Tamil Masala 8 The Genre Question 12 Defining Genre ' 16 "Generic qualifications": How does Star become Genre? 17 Genre as a Process: Repetition and Variation of Star Formula 18 Spectatorship, Verisimilitude and Identification 19 S Star Genre and Gender 22 Meta-myth: Star and Genre 25 Star Image and Genre 27 Star Vehicles as Genre 28 Locating the Old in New (and vice-versa): Relocating Genres in Tamil and 30 Telugu Cinemas Chapter II Design, Drama, Discourse, and the Star: Anatomy of Star Films in Tamil Cinema 34 Star film Schemata 35 Introducing the Star 37 Public Voice and Personal Space 39 The Introduction Song 45 'I' in relation to others 46 Star Oratory: The Punch Effect 62 Rajnikanth's punches: Vija/s Model 63 Punch Dialogue Mechanics 66 Reception and Reproduction of Punch Dialogues 70 Of Praying and Preaching: Hinduism and Populism 72 "Who is Tamil?" Tamilian and his Tamil 'nation' 82 Performance and Production of'Melodramatic Masculinity' 86 Chapter III The Genre System and Fans 106 Cinematic Institution 108 The "Indian" Spectator 112 The Tamil Spectator 114 The Genre Spectacle 116 My Friend, the Star: Distance between the Star and the Fan 121 The Star's Mass: Articulating Spectatorship in South India 124 The Intertextual Star 129 Star Genre: A Prognosis 136 Works Cited 148 Curriculum Vita 163 viii List of Figures In compliance with the murky and draconian state of current Canadian copyright policy most images have, necessarily, been stripped from this dissertation. However, as 'quoting' images is essential for substantive and cogent close readings of visual materials, I have left blank frames to indicate where the images appeared in the copy of the dissertation submitted to my examination committee in the interests of foregrounding the need to develop a more nuanced and balanced approach to fair usage of copyrighted images for scholars. Figures 13 and 15: Fan posters captured for the purpose this thesis by arrangement with Mr. Srinivas R. 55 Figure 65: News channels on Rajni Mania. Source: Screenshot of NDTV news footage 146 V / ix List of Abbreviations ADMK Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam AIADMK All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam FEFSI Film Employees Federation of South India DMK Dravida Munetra Kazhagam MGR Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran NRI Non-Resident Indian NTR N.T. Rama Rao SIFAA The South Indian Film Artistes'Association TNTOA Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners'Association x 1 Chapter I Introduction: Star, Genre and Tamil Cinema: Connotations with Theory and Context As in Hollywood, the power of the Indian star developed gradually but the position stars command today - both economically and in the popular imagination - is the result of an idiosyncratic economic system that has accorded them more absolute power than even their Hollywood contemporaries. (Gandhy and Thomas 107) Before stars from the sky became metaphoric for earthly wonders of fantastical existence or divinity, stars were first mythologized as celestial entities in fascination for their luminance, particularly by the great distance between the looker and the looked-at - the distance between reality and a mythical, yet a visible possibility.