Tamil Cinema in the Twenty-First Century explores the current state of Tamil cinema, one of India's largest film industries. Since its inception a century ago, Tamil cinema has undergone major transformations, and today it stands as a foremost cultural institution that profoundly shapes Tamil culture and identity. This book investigates the structural, ideological, and societal cleavages that continue to be reproduced, new ideas, modes of representation and narratives that are being created, and the impact of new technologies on Tamil cinema. It advances a critical interdisciplinary approach that challenges the narratives of Tamil cinema to reveal the social forces at work.

Contemporary global culture is inevitably culture in translation. It encompasses encounter, exchange, and transformation, disruption and the emergence of the totally new. Drawing on contemporary theorists in fields of cultural studies and postcolonial studies, this interdisciplinary collection of essays explores the functions of cultural translation in - and as - translocation. They analyze the uneven distribution of power and wealth alongside the unpredictable emergence of forms of agency in postcolonial and diasporic contexts, and in relation to the appetites of the global cultural and information economy. With diverse geocultural emphases, they refer to literature, film, television, electronic media, music, and other spaces of cultural gathering, collection, and performance. The essays span theoretical engagement and case study approaches, taking cultural materials and practices as objects, mediums, and agents of translocation. They contribute to vital contemporary debates about the politics of culture and peoples in translation. Contributors: Andy Barratt; Dan Bendrups; Diana Brydon; Vijay Devadas; Jacob Edmond; Alyth Grant; Philip Hayward; Henry Johnson; Mary McLaughlin; Brett Nicholls; Chris Prentice; Kate Roy; Simon Ryan; Paola Voci.

Tamil Cinema in the Twenty-First Century explores the current state of Tamil cinema, one of India's largest film industries. Since its inception a century ago, Tamil cinema has undergone major transformations, and today it stands as a foremost cultural institution that profoundly shapes Tamil culture and identity. This book investigates the structural, ideological, and societal cleavages that continue to be reproduced, new ideas, modes of representation and narratives that are being created, and the impact of new technologies on Tamil cinema. It advances a critical interdisciplinary approach that challenges the narratives of Tamil cinema to reveal the social forces at work.