Navigating Hyperrealities: Tamil Film (Kollywood) Choreography as Screen Dance

Sandhiya Kalyanasundaram

doi:10.18061/ijsd.v11i0.6840

Abstract

This essay discusses the choreographic ethos that integrates technology and dance as an evolving mode of storytelling in South Indian (Tamil-Kollywood) movies by tracing the work of director Shankar Shanmugam. Through analyses of song-dance sequences, I identify three key principles for using screendance techniques, and reflect on how these innovations contribute to cultivating and shaping the audience imagination. The audience is challenged to further engage at multiple levels and grapple with the relationships between human and more than human worlds. In the Kollywood scene, there is a constant quest for new techniques that can embrace inner realities.

Highlights

This essay discusses the choreographic ethos that integrates technology and dance as an evolving mode of storytelling in South Indian (Tamil-Kollywood) movies by tracing the work of director Shankar Shanmugam
Through this essay I am interested in outlining the specific Tamil film ethos that is rapidly evolving its storytelling modes in response to 1) a fast-changing social identity developed as a result of the changing Indian political, ecological and social landscape; 2) critical discourses about the individual and their role in society and the portrayal of the female characters; 3) what it means to be human in a world of technology and consumerism; 4) questioning the role of cinema and cinema artists in contributing to a dialogue about living our anthropocentric lives whilst beginning to inquire empathetically into more-than-human worlds; 5) bridging the quest of the artists and the audiences alike
The particular aesthetic of mixed choreography that borrows from world dance as well as specific Indian classical and folk forms, has generally led to applying the idea of videodance to dance made for the screen and including video, digital media, vfx/cgi effects and complex character costuming with prosthetics or large-scale festival celebrations

Summary

Introduction

This essay discusses the choreographic ethos that integrates technology and dance as an evolving mode of storytelling in South Indian (Tamil-Kollywood) movies by tracing the work of director Shankar Shanmugam. Choreography in many of the songs from his movies includes graphics, and dancers responding to a graphic character, use of motion capture technology and filming ‘timeslice’ by linking multiple cameras.

Results

Conclusion