MALAYALAM BIOPICS: FROM BOOKS TO FILMS Gayatri Binu Registered Number: 1324032 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communication Christ University Bengaluru 2015 Program Authorized to Offer Degree Department of Media Studies II Authorship Christ University Declaration Department of Media Studies This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a master’s thesis by Gayatri Binu Registered Number: 1324032 and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final examining committee have been made. Committee Members: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________ III IV I, Gayatri Binu, confirm that this dissertation and the work presented in it are original. 1. Where I have consulted the published work of others this is always clearly attributed. 2. Where I have quoted from the work of others the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations this dissertation is entirely my own work. 3. I have acknowledged all main sources of help. 4. If my research follows on from previous work or is part of a larger collaborative research project I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself. 5. I am aware and accept the penalties associated with plagiarism. Date: V VI Abstract Malayalam Biopics: From Books to Films Gayatri Binu MS in Communication, Christ University, Bangalore This article talks about the difficulties that emerge when considering biographical films that are focused around biographical or autobiographical works of writing utilizing careful investigations of three Malayalam films. The films are an adjustment from their individual books. Biopic Films (or biographical pictures) are a sub-class of the bigger show and epic film types, and despite the fact that they arrived at a prime of fame in the 1930s, they are still unmistakable right up till the present time. "Biopics" is a term got from the blend of the words "Biographical" and "pictures." These films portray and sensationalize the life of a critical recorded personage (or group) from the past or present time. Now and then, verifiable biopics stretch reality and recount a biography with changing degrees of accuracy. Bingham (2010) asserts that the 'biopic'(or biographical film) is a deplorably defamed film type that merits more distinguishment. On account of Malayalam film industry there are numerous biopics which have gotten consideration of the group of onlookers. The researcher tends to analyse selected Malayalam biopics which have been adapted from books and tries to analyse how these adaptations have been played by the filmmakers. Analysing the various film qualities like aesthetic, ideological and/or theoretical implications used in them, the narratives style and representations used in the films and how different the film is from the books. VII VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to the Department of Media Studies for their extended long-term support and especially to Professor Naresh Rao for his vast reserve of patience and knowledge. I also thank course coordinator Fr. Biju K. Chacko, Suparna Naresh, Aasita Bali, Amutha Manavalan, Rajesh A., Kannan S. and Shantaraju S. for their valuable feedback and restless assistance in bringing out this research. This thesis would never have been completed without the encouragement and devotion of my family and friends. IX X DEDICATION To my parents XI XII TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Introduction …………………………………………………….……...………1 Chapter II: Review of Literature …………………………………………………….……6 2.1 Indian Biopics …………………………………………………...………………..10 Chapter III: Methodology …………………………………………………….……...…..13 3.1 Film Analysing ………………………………….…………………………...……13 3.2 Approaches of Interpretation ………………………………….………………..…14 3.2.1 Iconic Analysis ..................................................................................................14 3.2.2 Semiotic Analysis ..............................................................................................14 3.2.3 Psychoanalytical Approach ...............................................................................15 3.2.4 Shot by Shot Analysis .......................................................................................15 3.2.5 Formalist Approach ...………….......................................................................16 3.2.6 Realist Approach ..............................................................................................16 3.2.7 Contextual Analysis .........................................................................................16 3.3 Myth of Nationhood ................................................................................................18 3.4 Constructing a Masculine Trope..............................................................................18 Chapter IV: Analysis .........................................................................................................20 4.1 Veeraputhran ...........................................................................................................20 4.1.1 Findings from the movie Veeraputhran ............................................................23 4.2 Celluloid...................................................................................................................26 4.2.1 Findings from the movie Celluloid ...................................................................29 4.3 Swathithirunal .........................................................................................................33 4.3.1 Swathi Thirunal as Arts Patron .........................................................................34 4.3.2 Swathi Thirunal as an Able Administrator .......................................................37 4.3.3 Finding from the movie Swathithirunal ...........................................................49 Chapter V: Conclusion ......................................................................................................42 Works Cited ......................... ............................................................................................43 XIII Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Custen, in Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History (1992), views the class as having kicked the bucket with the studio period in Hollywood, and specifically, Darryl F. Zanuck, yet Bingham's 2010 study Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre demonstrates how this propagates as an issue kind utilizing a hefty portion of the same tropes utilized as a part of the studio time which has emulated a comparative route as that indicated by Rick Altman in his point of interest study, Film/Genre. Bingham likewise throws light on the male biopic and the female biopic as unique classifications from one another, the previous for the most part managing extraordinary achievements, and the recent by and large managing female exploitation. Christopher Robe has additionally composed on the sex standards that underlie the biopic in his article, "Taking Hollywood Back" in the 2009 issue of Cinema Journal. The class of literary biography, biographical dramas or "biopics" are arranged in the hazy area in the middle of fiction and non-fiction. The expression "biopic" appears to infer a mixture of classes, extending from serious documentaries to melodrama, action film or comedy. Different extensions of social studies have just as of late come to acknowledge biographical film as a genre. Cinema plays a pivotal role in the negotiation and construction of national identity, selectively appropriating history, attempting to forge a sense of commonality in a set of people by evoking a sense of a shared past and by establishing a rupture with “others.” One of the means of constructing a nation is through the biopic. Great men biopics chronicle heroic deeds, sacrifice, and lofty moral virtues and either fabricate, or rediscover, and authenticate the myths of the founding fathers and celebrated men. Biopics disseminate the “myth of nationhood” by use of various narrative strategies – such as a glorification of hyper-masculinity, structuring binary oppositions in terms of character and thematic concerns, “otherness,” visualizing national territory, homogenizing a cultural diversity etc. These films become a part of the nationalistic discourse that reflects perceptions of what it means to be “Indian.” Bollywood in general and the biopic in particular has moved away from the Mother India mythology and its feminine reading of the nation to produce a particular variant of nationalism. The narrativisation of the past in silver screen has been a system for proliferating the thought of the country to a national open, a methods by which an individuals can fabricate a picture of themselves as people and groups. After a century of silver screen, motion pictures have changed significantly, both innovatively and elaborately, however after a hundred years, standard film is as of now telling and retelling stories, and the greater part of those stories are as of now being (or have been) appropriated from literary or emotional sources, as much as 85 percent by a few estimations and records. Adjustment has dependably been fundamental to the procedure of filmmaking since practically the starting and could well keep up its predominance into the film's second century.