Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies
The earliest genre of Indian film, the Mythological, presented the gods and heroes from the myths and epics of Hinduism in a new medium, with all the entrancing corporeality that the cinema screen suggested. Audience reception, to be found in an energetic culture of newspaper review, over time expre...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/85 |
| _version_ | 1818994830943977472 |
|---|---|
| author | Linda Anne Hemphill |
| author_facet | Linda Anne Hemphill |
| author_sort | Linda Anne Hemphill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The earliest genre of Indian film, the Mythological, presented the gods and heroes from the myths and epics of Hinduism in a new medium, with all the entrancing corporeality that the cinema screen suggested. Audience reception, to be found in an energetic culture of newspaper review, over time expresses not only the changing tastes of a maturing filmic critical faculty, but the way in which this feedback influenced cinematic portrayals, often leading to an eventual transmogrification of beloved characters. The physical representation on the screen of the bodies of divinities and avatars presented different problems to producers as their concerns grew to encompass not only censorship, but competition from other increasingly popular genres; such as the social genre film, in which sexuality could be scrutinized by the audience while pruriently censured. Films of such genres came to accommodate those physical types that had long been a staple of the Mythological genre, its champions and villains, along with its stories; without the growing confusion that the Mythological genre displayed in the physical portrayal of characters, or in faithfulness to character histories or even names. The alterations over the period of the genre’s dominance and decline, to clothing, sexuality and personal relationships, extended to the representation of myth and epic in other mediums, that of picture books and television, the two worlds in which the Mythological genre was reincarnated. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T21:04:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d4675cbef6d4480c8d692794201e8263 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2339-8523 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T21:04:11Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-d4675cbef6d4480c8d692794201e82632022-12-21T19:26:38ZengUniversitat Autònoma de BarcelonaIndialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies2339-85232017-11-015092710.5565/rev/indialogs.8554Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological BodiesLinda Anne Hemphill0Independent scholarThe earliest genre of Indian film, the Mythological, presented the gods and heroes from the myths and epics of Hinduism in a new medium, with all the entrancing corporeality that the cinema screen suggested. Audience reception, to be found in an energetic culture of newspaper review, over time expresses not only the changing tastes of a maturing filmic critical faculty, but the way in which this feedback influenced cinematic portrayals, often leading to an eventual transmogrification of beloved characters. The physical representation on the screen of the bodies of divinities and avatars presented different problems to producers as their concerns grew to encompass not only censorship, but competition from other increasingly popular genres; such as the social genre film, in which sexuality could be scrutinized by the audience while pruriently censured. Films of such genres came to accommodate those physical types that had long been a staple of the Mythological genre, its champions and villains, along with its stories; without the growing confusion that the Mythological genre displayed in the physical portrayal of characters, or in faithfulness to character histories or even names. The alterations over the period of the genre’s dominance and decline, to clothing, sexuality and personal relationships, extended to the representation of myth and epic in other mediums, that of picture books and television, the two worlds in which the Mythological genre was reincarnated.https://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/85film, mythological, epic, myth, krishna, mahabharata, ramayana, sexuality |
| spellingShingle | Linda Anne Hemphill Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies Indialogs: Spanish Journal of India Studies film, mythological, epic, myth, krishna, mahabharata, ramayana, sexuality |
| title | Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies |
| title_full | Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies |
| title_fullStr | Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies |
| title_short | Four-Meter-High Gods and Heroes: Mythological Bodies |
| title_sort | four meter high gods and heroes mythological bodies |
| topic | film, mythological, epic, myth, krishna, mahabharata, ramayana, sexuality |
| url | https://revistes.uab.cat/indialogs/article/view/85 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lindaannehemphill fourmeterhighgodsandheroesmythologicalbodies |