Accented Spatial Representations in the Internal Exilic Eelam-Tamil Film Viduthalai Moochu

• Main Authors: Loganathan, Ramesh, Pillai, Shanthini, Krish, Pramela
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: accent; deterritorialization; displacement; preoccupation; space-time
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss33/23; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/1815/viewcontent/KK_2033_2C_202019_2C_20_26_2034_2C_202020_2024_20Forum_20Kritika_20on_20the_20Shifting_20Frontiers_20of_20Literary_20Studies_20in_20the_20Twenty_First_20Century_20__20Loganathan_2C_20Pillai_2C_20Krish.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Studies have shown that accented filmmaking features and strategies are indeed appearing in wide-ranging films of contemporary cinemas. The main focus of this paper is to analyze Viduthalai Moochu, an internal exilic Eelam-Tamil film from Sri Lanka, using a concept derived from Hamid Naficy’s theorization of An Accented Cinema known as the “preoccupation with the place.” The concept is cinematically expressed through the open, closed, and third space- time cinematic formations. It needs to be noted here that Naficy’s theory offers a range of accented cinematic features that express accent in the film. However, the paper will only focus on the film’s spatial representations that are configured according to the space-time formations. Space-time formations are cinematic features that are employed to produce and reproduce the “accent” through cinematic representations of spaces and places rendered in the film. The configurations of the space-time formations will be used as the basis to examine Viduthalai Moochu, a film that does not seem to demonstrate the familiar conventions of filmmaking. The film mainly grapples with themes that enunciate the Eelam-Tamil displacement and deterritorialization in the internal exilic situation. The analysis shows how a particular version of alternative filmmaking strategy exclusively uses spatial representations to render themes of displacement and deterritorialization. The findings prove that the makers of Viduthalai Moochu have indeed employed the space-time formations to highlight the displacement and the deterritorialization of the Eelam-Tamil community through cinematic spatial representations.