September 28, 2007, 7 pm

"The Roots of South Indian Cinema: The Silent Era", a talk and a film clipping by S.Theodore Baskaran

Venue: Apparao Galleries, 3rd Street, Wallace Gardens
Nungambakkam, Chennai - 34

Theodore Baskaran began his career in Tamilnadu Archives and then entered Civil Service. His book The Message Bearers (Cre-A, 1981) is a standard reference work on early South Indian cinema and theatre. His other book The Eye of the Serpent: An Introduction to Tamil Cinema (East West, 1996) won the Golden Lotus award from the President of India. He has written on cinema in journals such Seagull Theatre Quarterly and Deep Focus. Baskaran has beenn on the Advisory Board of National Film Archives, Pune. In 2001, he was Hughes Visiting Scholar in the University of Michigan when he taught a course in South Indian Cinema. In 2003, he was on the jury for National Film awards. Baskaran writes in Tamil also. His books are Em Thamizhar Seydha Padam (The Cinema of the Tamils, Uyirmmai 1999.) and Chithiram Pesudhadi (Look...A Picture Speaks, Kalachuvadu 2004). For three years he has been the Director of Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai where he has documented source material on South Indian cinema.