I write reviews, profiles, essays, interviews, yearly round-ups and the like. You may have seen my work on Film Companion, Firstpost, Huffington Post, News9, Scroll, The Hindu Thread and Indian Express. If you’ve read my work at PopMatters or The South Asianist Journal, well, you must be a fan, <3
“As long as our films are male-centric, we’ll be producing only male stars. What happens to our female stars then?” asks Karthik Keramalu in his article for the Firstpost. He argues that the stardom of a female star is short-lived, often limited by age. If they take a break in their career for any reason, he…
By me. Published on June 16, 2017, The Hindu Thread. Much of film criticism about roles written for women in Tamil films revolves around the weakness of their characters and their purpose in the narrative. While this is warranted in most cases, it is unfair to the few strong characters who are meted out greater…
By me. Published on March 29, 2017, The Hindu Thread. When I pitched this essay about female antagonists, my editor replied with, “Great, lead with the unrepentant Neelambari!” Eighteen years on, Neelambari of Padayappa (1999) appears to be the most remembered ‘villi’ (colloquial for villainess) in Tamil cinema. With good reason. Neelambari is classic Tamil film villi…
By me. Published on February 28, 2017, The Ladies Finger This line of thought — an actor’s credentials depending on his ability to play a woman — is a Tamil film staple, a residue of Tamil cinema’s history in stage-drama. Since then, even the most riotous of heroes have worn female clothing and acted as…
PopMatters, October 26, 2016. Kumudhan Maderya begins this piece in his inimitable style — big words, confusing concepts, opaque theory. If you’ve the energy to plough through it, he makes for a fascinating and compelling case for Mouna Raagam as a Hindu nationalist fantasy. Told from Divya’s point of view, Mouna Raagam asks and answers…
By me. Published in October 2016, The Hindu Thread There will come a day when it would no more be shameful to admit that one enjoys a mega-serial (like we can now be unapologetic fans of popular cinema). Following that will come a day when television will create more meaningful, progressive content. Read the story here.
By me. Published in August 2016, The Hindu Thread. In the name of showcasing talented children, Tamil television programming has young actors put on adult roles under the guise of cuteness, blurring the line between precocious and inappropriate. Read the story here.
Economic & Political Weekly, April 25, 2009, vol XLIV no 17 I’ve always been wary analysing something that’s not recent — it becomes at effort in post-fitting what might have been, more than anything else.¹
Sohini Chattopadhyay, The Indian Quarterly, July-September issue, 2016. This isn’t technically an academic paper, but that shouldn’t stop us from reading exceptional research/writing on film. In the latest issue of the Indian Quarterly, Sohini Chattopadhyay explores the on-screen depiction of a ‘veerangana’ — as a warrior, a queen, an outlaw, a cop, among others. Chattopadhyay…
eDhvani (UoH Journal of Comparative Literature, ISSN 2279-0209) Issue 2, January 2013. Madurai-based films as a study of caste representation in Tamil cinema are common — in academic circles and otherwise. This group of filmmakers — Sasikumar, Balaji Sakthivel, Ameer and similar — being called ’new wave’ for their raw/realistic portrayal of life in Madurai…
South Asian Popular Culture, 10:3, 307-318 Another paper that takes into account just one song to make a larger point — but this one does an intriguing job. In this paper, Amanda Weidman explores the various meanings of an item song — En Peru Meenakumari from Kandasamy — as it jumps off the screen into…
Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2009 Management lessons from the epics is now commonplace — hello, Devdutt Patnaik. This paper analyses Kannadasan’s song from Aandavan Kattalai for lessons on leadership. “…the purpose of this article is to explore the leadership perspective from Indian literature works such as from the…
National Identities, 12:1, 41-59 If there is anything I’ve learned from Maya Ranganathan, it is to place whatever you are arguing “squarely”¹ within social, political, and economic context. And that the ability to build said context comes from extensive reading.² In this paper — Towards a more inclusive Indian identity? A case study of the…
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 26:6, 871-881 In this paper, Ranganathan and Velayutham argue: “…that subtle shifts and changes in Indian–Sri Lankan political relations over the period of the conflict, 1983–2009, coupled with the nebulous articulation of ethnic affinity between Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamils in media in general, greatly impacted on…
By me. Published in May 2016, The Hindu Thread. Tamil film heroes have an aura and gravitas that enables them to play characters who can defy societal norms and commit condonable crimes on screen. Read the story here.
When I pitched this essay about female antagonists, my editor replied with, “Great, lead with the unrepentant Neelambari!” Eighteen years on, Neelambari of Padayappa (1999) appears to be the most remembered ‘villi’ (colloquial for villainess) in Tamil cinema. With good reason. Neelambari is classic Tamil film villi — a stock character and a shrew — angry, rich,…
By me. Published in December 2014, The Forager My story about food, weddings and Tamil cinema in The Forager.