By now, all of us know that 10 years down, we might be parenting a generation who will be rote reading Harry Potter, Tintin, Asterix comics, Amar Chitra Katha and Agatha Christie. The ICSE board’s decision to include these as part of academia is an outcome of our change in attitude towards popular culture. The canon is finally taking note of mass culture. High and low culture can share space, the experts say.
Are you a songwriter who can strike a chord with millions? Then you are a writer. This year, Bob Dylan, a songwriter who defied conventional notions of popular music and defined the political imagination of generations, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. It brought out a mixed response; some welcomed it as redefining the boundaries of literature, while some others pooh-poohed the idea saying he did not belong to mainstream literature. But, who decides these rules?
The academic circle had realised the philosopher and poet in Dylan many years ago. My mother, an English professor in the University of Calicut, who studied in Jawaharlal Nehru University, recalls how a student doing her thesis on the singer created a lot of buzz in her hostel. “He was seen as a poet and a philosopher, even then,” she says.
Exciting topics were brewing in the film studies circle, too. Scholars came up with path-breaking studies on MGR’s rise to power, the charisma of Amitabh Bachchan and the macho narratives of the Kerala superstar culture. These essays threw new light on mass heroes and how they mirrored the dreams of the common man. And, all of a sudden, popular cinema was seen as a tool to study social fabric.
Cut to 2016. Things have changed so much. Now, subjects of dissertations range from graphic novels to trolls in social media. Two years ago, I did a thesis on two of my favourite stars in the Malayalam film industry — Mammootty and Mohanlal — for my Master’s. During the proposal submission, I had to present my arguments on fan culture in Kerala to an inquisitive European professor.
Journalists too are not far behind in this. When Kabali released, many reporters, including me, did stories on the film and the fan frenzy. A few readers responded to my story on meeting Rajinikanth in Malaysia last November as a fall in serious reporting. And, some wondered if a popular film, starring a mass actor, demanded so much attention in national dailies. A.S. Panneerselvan, the readers’ editor of The Hindu , came out with a public reply, saying how Kabali not only generated national interest, but even international curiosity. “If a particular pop cultural moment has captured the imagination of the people, can the newspaper afford not to cover it extensively?”
The world of South Indian classical music also woke up to the disconnect it had with the masses. Back in Chennai, we witnessed the first edition of the Urur-Olcott Kuppam Margazhi Vizha, a counter-culture movement. Musicians, eco-warriors, folk artistes and activists joined hands to bring the classical art, trapped in sabhas, to the seashore. Carnatic musicians and villu paattu and kattaikuttu artistes shared the stage. During the kutcheri of singer P. Unnikrishnan, the audience sang his popular number ‘Yennavale’ from the movie Kadhalan , in the middle of his performance.
Haters will hate and trollers will troll. But, it is time we realised that there are no water-tight compartments any more. Poetry, the visual arts, and music are embraced under the bigger umbrella called culture. This is the age of inter-disciplinary studies that proves every work of art and literature holds its relevance. And, it’s best if we don’t build walls around them.
