Films Faith Exploring identities of British Tamil Hindu

Films & Faith Exploring identities of British Tamil Hindu teenagers through the act of viewing, reflecting upon and performing Tamil Hindu films. 11/09/2015 Heavenly Acts, Sheffield Arani Ilankuberan

Introduction • Introducing My Study: background, methodology and theoretical perspectives. • Introducing Tamil Hindu Films: background and short clips to provide context. • Data: excerpts from interviews revealing the spiritual, emotional and moral development of participants. • Conclusion: summary and concluding thoughts

Introducing my study

Background • Main research question: What effects viewing Tamil Hindu films has on the identity of British Tamil Hindu teenagers. • Longitudinal study: data collected over three years with three teenage participants. • Participant observation. Tamil films discussed in English

Background • My own family viewing practices informed study. • I remember really enjoying seeing these films with my family and I remember treating the viewing of such films differently to other films. The religious nature of these films carried with it all the associations with visiting a Temple and so I treated it with respect and learnt from it – I treated the viewing of such films as an almost semi-religious experience in itself or at least part of the ways faith entered my daily life.

Methodology: Types of data • Audio recorded, semi-structured Interviews Of the teenage participant before, throughout and after viewing the film. One group interview/film viewing with all three participants. • Observations = field narratives Of the teenage participant watching Tamil religious films with researcher. • Analysis of written work = Film reviews By the participant analysing the films viewed alone.

Theoretical Perspectives • Ethnographic approach • ethnography instead seeks to ‘make explicit the rules that are already implicitly known to the group’ • Film audience reception theory • reception theory which ‘focuses not on who made a film or on its formal features or thematic content but on how it is received by audiences’ • Views performance – identity, religious practices and reenactment

Introducing Tamil Hindu Film

Tamil Devotional Films • The Mythological Film These are the films that faithfully adhere to the Purana (tales of the Gods) and enact the stories of the past. • The Fictional Film These are the films that discuss good and evil amongst people and portrays fictional instances of divine intervention.

Tamil Devotional Films • ‘Hindu religious worship strongly emphasis[es] the power of vision [making] the experience of viewing [itself] a devotional experience … viewers forged deep religious identifications with the deity on screen because of the continuities with traditional performance styles of the epics’ (Gillespie, 2005, 163).

Tamil Devotional Films Visual Culture and Religious Iconography Thiruvilayadal (Divine Games) 1965 Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi Image of Lord Shiva and his consort Goddess Parvathi used for worship.

Visual Culture and Religious Iconography Goddess Saraswathi Palm leaves symbolic of knowledge Veena, a musical instrument Swan, her vehicle is the embodiment of discernment that is a valued quality in education Seated upon a white lotus flower Wisdom

Visual Culture and Religious Iconography Saraswathi Sabatham (Saraswathi’s Challenge) 1966 Goddess Saraswathi Image and idol of Goddess Saraswathi used for worship.

Visual Culture and Religious Iconography Goddess Saraswathi Home Prayer Room/Altar/Cupboard Goddess Saraswathi London Sri Murugan Temple

Tamil Hindu Film Excerpts • Divine Domestic Disputes • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=07 EI 2 b OMx. Wc • Goddess Parvathi’s Dance • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=k_Bd 0 f 9 k. Et 4

Data Emotional development • It is widely noted that ‘moving images have a unique capacity to engage the emotions and imagination of viewers’ (Babb and Wadley, 1995, p 189). When this is coupled with the notion that ‘viewing god films is seen […] as a pleasurable act of devotion in itself’ (Allen, 1995, p 362), the emotional engagement of such films has a dual purpose: pleasure and devotion. Thus emotional development can be categorised here as charting the developments in their emotional understanding and responses to the films being shown, their experiences whilst watching and whilst discussing the films. Buckingham (1996) notes important distinctions between behavioural effects such as imitation and emotional responses that are defined as longer term ideological influences.

Data Emotional development • Saraparan: “When you see God you get that tingling feeling”. • Janani: “in Kandhan Karunai when he gets shot by the arrow, and they sing a song as well, after that you know [sings] “ullathil nalla ullam” that song and that's a really good song, and you feel really quite I don't know, emotional after that, and you know just like “Aw my gosh! The good guy's dead””.

Data Emotional development • a pattern emerges where in their retellings there is an increased likelihood of using the active instead of the passive voice when the events in the film become dramatically heightened. For example, in this episode, where the King declares and sentences Abiramipattar to his death, all three participants chose to use the active voice and direct speech to describe the action in the scene: • Saraparan: "ok, I’ll, I'm gonna um put you on a swing and erm we'll see what happens, what if the moon doesn't come, then I'll burn you" • Janani: "no you silly man today the, the moon isn't going to come" […] “I'm gonna light a fire if it doesn't happen and I'm gonna kill you” • Saranth: "if there's not a full moon today I will burn you alive!"

Emotional development and performance • Their imitations of the King’s dialogue in their own voice also links to their use of these films outside of home viewings; as exemplified by Janani whilst describing the impact of Saraswathi Sabatham (1966) “Saraswathi Sabatham was a film that really made me think about what was really important in life. About two years ago, my mum did the same film as a play for our Tamil school’s annual programme, and though I watched the film with her I did not think about it so much. Perhaps because I have grown a little older, I am able to think about these things a little more. ” Here she describes her understanding growing with maturity meaning she is able to think more critically and analytically of the films now but the use of the film as a drama adaptation for the school play is where all three participants would have assumed a role akin to those in the film, hence their confidence in becoming the performer to get across their points on the film.

Data Spiritual development • Spiritual development can be defined as it is by Thompson and Randall (1999) as concerning the broad search for transcendental meaning and is also “connected to children’s efforts to understand the meaning and causes of life experience. ” (Thompson and Randall, 1999, p 91). I build upon this definition and expand it to include the development of their faith knowledge and understanding and how they internalise faith concepts, language and symbolisms.

Data Spiritual development

Data Spiritual development After describing the scene, participants start to analyse it and during the analysis, Janani touches upon the Hindu concept of God being within that is connected to meditation, as meditation is the vehicle that allows the self to reach the higher self, showing an understanding of the connection between the concepts: • • • J: and as well as this, erm I think the fact that we all have a God in us 00: 02: 36 -1 A: mmm 00: 02: 36 -7 J: because you know he was praying, so yeah 00: 02: 38 -8 A: yeah, do you, so do you like that concept of we all have God in us? Cos it is a Hindu concept, what do you think of that idea? 00: 02: 45 -2 J: err I don't know, maybe erm, yeah, I suppose we all do because we all do nice things but er I wouldn't say it's God, I think it's just that we all have a good side and we have, all have a bad side. 00: 02: 55 -5 However, here Janani displays her ambivalence over certain concepts such as “the fact that we all have a God in us”, her use of the word “fact” in the Hindu sense is immediately contradicted with being unsure that can be attributed to God as she goes onto describe people having both good and bad sides. Her ambivalence is due to the perception of God as good and so she struggles to see how goodness (representing God inside us) can coexist with the bad side present in people therefore she remains unsure of this “fact”.

Data Moral development • Moral development is connected to faith and emotional understanding however it is more focused on the issue of morality and their engagement with the morals being presented to them through the films and in the discussions surrounding the films. As ‘assessment of moral development is based [according to Kohlberg] on how individuals reason about moral dilemmas rather than on specific moral beliefs or conclusions. ’ (Moshman, 2008, p 51) these films offer the participants moral scenarios and their discussion surrounding the scenes is an arena in which they can exercise their developing morality.

Data Moral development • Saraparan: “Some of these stories might not be true; they might be made up for morals”.

Data Moral Development • • J: (laughs) umm even in India, I don't think they do these kind of things anymore, I actually find it quite funny, how back then, you could get into contact with God (clicks finger) so easily (laughs) I mean you just pray to them (laughing) all of a sudden they're here! [(Laughs)] 00: 02: 34 -4 A: [yeah, I know!] 00: 02: 35 -5 J: (laughs) and here nowadays, I mean, yeah but no one's got the. . . proper heart 00: 02: 40 -4 A: yeah 00: 02: 41 -1 J: to sit there for 15 years and you know 00: 02: 43 -6 A: yeah 00: 02: 44 -2 J: meditate. She links the moral tale of the film to her understanding of the Hindu religious society today in India/Sri Lanka and here in London, attributing the lack of miracles nowadays to peoples lack of a “proper heart”, this suggests that she sees the times depicted in the film as a simpler, truer age where pure devotion existed unlike recent times where she sceptically muses about the widespread lack of an authentic devotion where one devotes their life substantially “ 15 years to meditate” in a religious life path. Their moral understanding is coupled with their faith knowledge, social and personal insights.

Conclusion • The varied and rich responses all three participants have on the same episode is indicative of the way the film is personally processed by these individuals, focusing on areas that highlight the film’s impact on developing their wider understanding of the place of these films in their fluid, flexible, growing and changing identities.

Thank you Arani Ilankuberan Arani. kuberan@yahoo. co. uk