Class 46. Cinema and songs — how to talk about a film like somebody who belongs in the conversation. WHY THIS CLASS EXISTS In most countries film is entertainment. In Kerala film is a civic activity. Malayalam cinema is one of the most critically respected industries in the world, with a fiercely literate audience, and ordinary people argue about screenplays and performances the way people elsewhere argue about football. Two things follow. If you can talk about films, you can join almost any Kerala conversation. And film is the single best listening resource you have. THE THREE REGISTERS FOR ONE THING ചലച്ചിത്രം (chalachithram) — motion picture. Chalanam (movement) + chithram (picture). Malayalam built its own compound rather than borrowing. This is what the newspaper prints. സിനിമ (cinema) — the neutral word. പടം (padam) — literally "a picture", and what people actually say. ഈ പടം കണ്ടിരുന്നോ? Have you seen this film? THE VOCABULARY നായകൻ hero · നായിക heroine — note the pattern: -an masculine, -a feminine. Same in ഗായകൻ/ഗായിക, singer. പ്രതിനായകൻ the villain — prathi (counter) + naayakan. **Malayalam builds its antagonist out of its protagonist.** സംവിധായകൻ director — and in Kerala the director IS the star. A Malayali will tell you who directed a film before they tell you who was in it. That is a real cultural difference. തിരക്കഥ screenplay — thira (screen) + katha (story). The screen-story. സംഭാഷണം dialogue · രംഗം scene, and also a stage · ദൃശ്യം a visual. THE WORD WITH TWO THOUSAND YEARS BEHIND IT അഭിനയം (abhinayam) — acting. It comes from the classical performance tradition, from Kathakali and Koodiyattam, where abhinayam is a formal technical discipline with codified expressions. When a Malayali praises somebody's abhinayam, that whole history is in the word. Taught by Dr. Reshmi R Nair.