In *Intimate Visualities and the Politics of Fandom in India*, Gerritsen explores the circulation of images of a movie star named Rajinikanth. Cities and towns in the south Indian state Tamil Nadu are consistently ornamented with huge billboards, murals and myriad posters featuring political leaders as well as movie stars. A selective part of these images is put up by their fan clubs. Tamil movie fans typically manifest themselves by putting up images of their star in public spaces and by generating a plethora of images in their homes. Gerritsen argues that these images are a crucial part of the everyday affective modes of engagement with family members and film stars but they are also symbolizing the political realm in which fans situate themselves. At the same time, Gerritsen shows how these image productions seem to concur with other visual regimes articulated in government restrictions, world class imaginaries and upper class moralities as presented on India's urban streets.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on language and figures
- Introduction
- Fans – cinema – politics: a concise history
- Everyday politics
- Cinematic audiences in South India
- Affective images: Intimate publics and public intimacy
- Spectacular icons, public spaces, visual strategies
- This book
- 1. Keeping in control
- The figure of the fan in the tamil film industry
- Tamil film fan clubs
- The figure of the fan
- How it all started
- Film-watching
- The (too) active audience
- Vigilantes and keeping in control
- 2. Intimacy on display
- Film stars, images, and everyday life
- The household and intimacy
- Tactical images, proximate celebrities
- Family images, family lives
- Residues of encounters
- Mimesis and its limits
- 3. Vexed veneration: the politics of fandom
- Shaping the figure of the fan
- Making visible: Altruism and politicking
- Praise
- Gendered fandom
- Style and the power of fan collectivity
- Vexed veneration: The politics of Rajinikanth
- From fan club to party politics and back again: Vijayakanth
- The (im)possibility and (un)desirability of politicking
- 4. Public intimacies and collective imaginaries
- Cinematic geographies
- The downfall of painted images
- The painted image
- Materiality and affect
- The limits of star imagery
- Visual presencing
- 5. Chennai beautiful
- Shifting urban landscapes and the politics of spectacle
- Aspirations for the future, nostalgia for the past
- Reflecting the essence of Tamil culture?
- Shifting publics
- The unruly potential of images
- Conclusion
- Epilogue
- The cinema
- Loss
- Fan mimicry
- New media, new politics?
- References
- Index
- List of figures
- Figure 1 Wall painting displaying MGR (left) and Jayalalitha (middle and right) commissioned by AIADMK party members
- Figure 2 Shankar’s shop; Puducherry 1987
- Figure 3 Selvam’s wall, showing a commemorative poster for Rajinikanth’s 60th birthday, a film poster for Kusalan, a calendar, and a framed photo of Selvam’s deceased mother; Puducherry 2010
Selvam holding his photo album. In the background, several of
- Figure 4 Napoleon Raja (left) posing for his sister’s wedding in white clothes and a Rajinikanth pose; Puducherry
- Figure 5 Saktivel and Nalini’s wedding invitation; Moratandi 1995
- Figure 6 Cover of a wedding photo album with the bride and groom in the middle and the film star Kamal Hassan on the left, talking into a microphone; Puducherry, 2002
- Figure 7 Rajinikanth and Selvam; Puducherry
- Figure 8 Rajinikanth and Ranjit; Puducherry, date unknown
- Figure 9 Image constructed from the photo of a meeting with the former AIRFC leader Sathyanarayanan with Ibrahim, Saktivel, and Murugan. Rajinikanth appears on the left- and right-hand side. The six men at the bottom of the image are other fan club membe
- Figure 10 Framed photos in Ibrahim’s office; Villupuram 2008
- Figure 11 Constructed image of Rajinikanth and Sundar in photo album; Cuddalore, date unknown
- Figure 12 Rajinikanth and Annamalai, and Annamalai and Rajinikanth; Puducherry, date unknown
- Figure 13 Banner made by fans for the coming-of-age ceremony; Puducherry 2008
- Figure 14 Men arranging the packages with bread, fruit, and a Rajinikanth image
in buckets. They make sure the images of Rajinikanth are visible;
Puducherry 2007
- Figure 15 Local women and children waiting at the place where Selvan Nathan’s fan club will distribute their social welfare items; Puducherry 2007
- Figure 16 Part of the mural that banner artist Ranjit and his friend Selvam made for the film Sivaji: The Boss; Puducherry 2008
- Figure 17 Kumar and apprentices and helpers working on a painting in front of his house-cum-studio; Puducherry, date unknown
- Figure 18 Garlanded fan club metal board on Rajinikanth’s birthday; Puducherry 2002
- Figure 19 Cutout commissioned by fans on the release of the Rajinikanth movie Maaveeran (Rajasekar 1986) at the Anandha Cinema; Puducherry 1986
- Figure 20 Rajinikanth birthday banner by a fan club on Koot Road, a main district junction in Villupuram, 2002
- Figure 21 Wedding invitation displaying Rajinikanth and fan club members
- Figure 22a A banner for an ear-piercing ceremony. It depicts DMK connections. In the top right corner, we see Karunanidhi, below his son Stalin, and three local DMK leaders; Gingee 2008
- Figure 22b The right-hand banner shows the same family but now with Rajinikanth (left), district fan club leader Ibrahim (top right), the parents (below), and their children. On the left side it shows DMK affiliations; Gingee 2008
- Figure 23 Beautification mural made by artist J.P. Krishna depicting two foreign tourists looking at the Mamallapuram heritage site; Chennai 2010
- Figure 24 Beautification mural made by artist J.P. Krishna depicting a musician; Chennai 2009
- Figure 25 Artist uses a copied page of the famous Amar Chitra Katha comics as a model to paint the story of Kannagi; Chennai 2010
- Figure 26 Beautification mural made by artist J.P. Krishna depicting a rural scene of the harvesting and transplanting of rice, along with an Ayyanar shrine; Chennai 2009
- Figure 27 Mural of golf players that has been incorporated into the series of beautification paintings made by the artist J.P. Krishna. According to the Corporation officials this mural should not have been included as it does not represent Tamil culture
- Figure 28 Beautification mural of a doctor looking at an X-ray. This mural is on the compound wall in front of the government hospital on Poonamallee High Road; Chennai 2010
- Figure 29 Beautification mural depicting an ayurvedic healing scene; Chennai 2010
- Figure 30 Vendor in front of a painted scene depicting a market; Chennai 2011
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