Thampi kannanthanam biography of albert
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History of Malayalam Cinema
History of Malayalam Cinema
EDITED BY
BITCHU KHAN
bichu666@gmail.com
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History of Malayalam cinema
Kerala: The Legacy of Visual Culture
Even much before the ankomst of cinema, the people of Kerala were familiar with
moving images on the screen through the traditional art form ‘tholpavakkuthu’
(Puppet Dance). Usually exhibited at festivals of village temples, ‘tholpavakkuthu’
uses puppets made of leather with flexible joints. These joints are moved using
sticks and the shadow of these moving puppets are captured on a screen using a
light source from behind, creating dramatic moving images on the screen. Stories
from the mythology were told so, with accompanying dialogues and songs with
traditional percussions like the Chenda. ‘Tholpavakkuthu’ uses some of the
techniques widely used in cinema like the close-ups and long-shots.
Apart from the art of ‘tholpavakkuthu’, which exhibits the nature of cinema, many of
the folk arts and classical dance forms like ‘Kuthu’, ‘Koodiya
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Before World War I
At the beginning of the 20th century the Indian subcontinent was one giant British colony (the "East Indies"). There was economic growth but the economic inequality was colossal, with a rich aristocracy enjoying the financial benefits of capitalism and the masses in constant danger of starvation. The caste system and discrimination against women further contributed to create an unequal society.
In July 1896 Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe showed six silent shorts at a Mumbai/Bombay hotel. At the time the plague was spreading in the city, and a famine that would kill almost a million people was beginning to spread throughout the country. In that year a Harry Clifton Soundy opened a photography studio in Mumbai and one year later advertised a schema of daily screenings of short movies. In 1898 two Italians set up tents in Mumbai's open field Gymkhana Maidan (now Azad Maidan) to show imported movies. In 1899 a Harishchandra Bhatvadekar showed (in Mumbai's
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