Celluloid deities : the visual culture of cinema and politics in South India / Preminda Jacob.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacob, Preminda, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commercial art--India--Madras.

Commercial art.

Painted signs and signboards--India--Madras.

Painted signs and signboards.

Graphic arts--Social aspects--India--Madras.

Graphic arts.

Graphic arts--Political aspects--India--Madras.

Art and society--India--Madras.

Art and society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 p.)

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book focuses attention on an aspect of India's dynamic and vibrant street art: billboard size advertisements, hand-painted for the entertainment cinema industry and local political parties, that unfurl mural-like across the urban landscape of Chennai, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. The making and consuming of this public art engenders a space for relay between film celebrities and political figures based on a visual cultural discourse of charisma.

Contents:

Introduction: Of painters, politicians, and film stars

Chennai's banner industry: artists and their methods

Cooperation and conflict in Chennai's visual culture: financiers, artists and their audiences

Tamil cinema: history, celebrities, genres

Cine signs: semiotics of Chennai's cinema banners

Coalescence of Tamil nationalism and the cinema industry

Political cutout: celebrity and cult in Tamil Nadu

Darshan and cinematic spectatorship

Future of Chennai's visual culture.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-290) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-49363-9

9786612493638

0-7391-3130-3

OCLC:

263869687