December 13 and 14, 2003 Prakriti Foundation presented "Woman and Goddesses: Reimagining the feminine in Tamil Cinema" Venue: Suprageet Preview Theater and Sundar Mahal, Chennai
13th December
2003
Viewing women
in cinema is usually from a voyeuristic 'male gaze.' The genre of Amman
films allow women to view themselves as agents of power, they are allowed
to empower themselves albeit through the Amman. In the genre of vigilante,
heroic, avenging women, too, the empowerment is justified, though sometimes
within the interstices of male patriarchy.
To curate this event, inspiration was drawn from women in marginalized situations who empower themselves in either situations of religiosities or action based assertive empowering. This happens to women all around us, those we grow up with and continue to work with (in my case, garment factory workers). This view of the feminine is a powerful trope from our histories down to popular culture. We must review it constantly and celebrate it always. Welcome
to "Woman and Goddesses - Reimagining the feminine in Tamil Cinema"
"A project in progress, it seeks to understand, it does not give any 'finality' to the understanding; but only seeks to represent difference in perceptions, knowing that differences and many understandings or alternate understandings are needed today, as always, to break hegemonies and universalities, cultural, visual, sexual, among many others. I use the term 're-imaging' and 'other kind of imaging', and/or non imaging in Tamil amman films to the exclusion of metaphors, symbols, faiths, practices of non Hindu (non Brahminical, or let's say non Sanskritic) communities. One would like to give excerpts from a past, rather 'clever' re-imaging 'exercise', as it were, of the perception of the 'pey'/possession woman Nili, in the Tamil Jain context, Nilakeci. Where it is possible, to recreate what is considered a universal 'given' as an example of hegemonic representations. Coming to Tamil films on the amman, one questions singular, universal depictions as well as the lack of creativity in building the amman-woman (devotee) relationship; reiterating patriarchal, brahminical 'types' even in the case of the village, folk goddesses. Where are non-Hindu, non-brahminical communities in this portrayal? Where are, in short, the 'hidden' meanings and hidden communities, that cry to be retrieved, like Nili or the Nilakeci?" R Uma Maheswari is based in Hyderabad. He has been an 'NGO' worker, teacher of history, freelance and full time journalist, a research scholar trying to write (or review) the history of the Tamil Jain community among other things.
Mirror,
a one-woman solo performance attempts to interrogate our assumptions about
female narcissism; in the context of social conditions, that often cause
the suicidal deaths of female stars. The narrative outlines the lives of
2 women. The first is a young, lower middle class woman of contemporary
times, who commits suicide at the peak of her fame and stardom. The second,
the protagonist of the narrative, is the female star of a bygone era, a
person who enters the film industry when the Devadasi system is abolished.
Voices of other women, including that of the narrator, produce other interlocutions.
Pritham K Chakravarthy is a playwright, director, performer, film critic and activist from Chennai. She has performed in Meendum Meendum, Surya Mukam, solo Nirvanam (presented in India, USA under Fulbright Fellowship & 2002 Edinburgh Festival), solo Vellavi, and Orientations (a theater production by Border Crossings).
Tejaswini Niranjana is a Senior Fellow, Center for Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore. She writes and teaches cultural theory and feminist theory. She has published Sitting Translation: History, Post-structuralism and the Colonial Context, has co-edited Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India.
"I will be examining some successful goddess films of the nineties in Telugu and reflect upon the interesting questions they raise for feminist theory about women's religiosity and agency." Uma Bhrugubanda is a doctoral candidate in the Dept of Anthropology at Columbia University. She is exploring issues of religiosity and secularism through an examination of the mythological and devotional genres in Telugu cinema.
"In Tamil cinema, right from the years of the silent era, up to the present day, there have been spasmodic occurrences of the theme of avenging women. The model was set by Kannagi story in Silappathikaram quite early. I try to look at some of the films and argue that though they portrayed assertive women protagonists, the depiction was within the framework of dominant cinema. These films are examples of, to borrow the words of feminist film theoretician Laura Mulvey, 'legitimizing patriarchy through the backdoor.'" Theodore Baskaran has published articles on cinema and socio-political movements in EPW, Deep Focus, The Journal of Tamil Studies and Frontline. His books on cinema are 'Message Bearers: the Nationalist Politics and the Entertainment Media in South India 1880-1945' and 'Eye of the Serpent: An introduction to Tamil Cinema' (1996). This won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema. His book 'Thamizh Cinemavin Mugangal' (The faces of Tamil Cinema) was released in 1999. He was on the jury for national film awards in 2002.
"The power
of She, inspired by a rather unusual seminar in Chennai."
"The reasons
for having a festival of this sort in Chennai, is an interesting study
in itself."
December 14, 2003 at 7pm The Embassy of France in India, Alliance Francaise and Prakriti Foundation presented "Pascal of Bollywood" Venue: Sundar Mahal, Padmavathy Road, Jeypore Colony, Chennai
"His infectious
smile and interesting voice had the gathering at Amethyst swaying and clapping
in pure enjoyment. He has almost 2000 songs in his kitty, mostly from the
1960s, 70s and 80s. And mind you, he cannot understand a word of what he
sings! What makes his singing work is the joie de vivre."
"When one
sat in the spacious hall of Sundar Mahal, the lovely old mansion which
houses the lifestyle store Amethyst, and heard French singer Pascal Heni
belting out all-time favorite Hindi and Tamil hits, you feel sort of surreal.
A thoroughly entertaining Pascal is singing Evening in Paris to a packed
audience young and old with some foreigners thrown in. And when Pascal
with the Delhi singer Smriti sings the MGR-Sarojadevi classic Rajavin Parvai,
there is total audience participation. In the audience were classical dancers,
singers and painters. A good time was had by all."
"He had
the audience shouting 'encore' as he revived old Bollywood charm with Suhana
safar, Harkisi ko nahi miltha, Ithna na mujse thu pyar badha and many more."
|
Curator's
note:
"My presentation
focuses on films starring Vijayashanti. My interest in her dates back to
discussions over the last decade in women's groups about film and media,
to our embarrassment about weepy women, anger against 'degradation' of
female bodies, and our discontent regarding female stereotypes. Our reaction
was to seek positive images of women, to read for character and plot, which
would 'empower' women viewers. Our attention was drawn to the popularity
of the Vijayashanti figure and we wondered if our applause for a woman
beating up the villains would be wholly unqualified. We noticed that both
feminist and non-feminist women spectators for different reasons, felt
some discomfort at watching Vijayashanti, and were confused about the compulsion
to celebrate vigilantism. My paper is an attempt at exploring the reasons
for that discomfort."
Frenchman Heni
Pascal is certainly the first western singer to reinterpret songs from
mainstream Indian cinema, in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. He listens to Marathi
and Gujarati songs too. The songs are rerecorded with an orchestra in India
and remixed in Europe. When on a trip to Malaysia, he happened to hear
"Zindagi ek safar" sung by Kishore Kumar and from then on began his connection
with Indian film music. At a time when remix and bhangra pop are the most
popular type of music, Heni chooses the golden melodies of yesteryear legends
like Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, T M Soundararajan
and current favorites S P Balasubramaniam and Sadhana Sargam, presenting
them with a western sensibility. Pyarelal (of the Lakshmikant-Pyarelal
duo) has been Heni's mentor and will help him release a CD of 20 songs.
