Posts from — January 2008

Khushboo reigned as a favourite Tamil star during the late 80s and 90s and eventually became, believe it or not, a deity in a temple constructed for her in Tiruchi district during 90s. She married a well known Tamil film director, Sunder.C and came to be known as the daughter in law of Tamil Nadu. Like the majority of Tamil actresses, she has her origins in a cultural and linguistic milieu that is farther from the cultural and linguistic milieu of the Tamil film industry. Her 2005 interview on pre-marital sex and virginity in the Tamil edition of India Today proved to be an unexpected turning point in her public life. [Read more →]

Remember Marion Crane? Remember what Laura Mulvey sought to convey about the patriarchal moorings of the classical film narrative in her defining work, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema? Marion Crane of Psycho (1960) stands out from the multitude of Hitchcock’s female stars in one respect. When it comes to defining the victimisation engendered by the male gaze, Marion Crane succeeded remarkably well. She expressed well the trauma of being gazed and pursued by scores of male eyes and finally trapped and subjugated by Norman Bates, a male who was also a female (his mother). [Read more →]