ETHNOGRAPHY AND TULU CINEMA: A CASE STUDY OF THE FILM ‘KANCHILDA BALE’

Abstract

Tulu film industry is a part of Indian Cinema. Tulu film Industry also called as Coastalwood. It has an illustrious relationship with Kannada film industry. But cinema entered to Tulu only in 1970's. The first film being Enna Thangadi released in 1971. It produces 5 to 7 films annually. Though Tulu has a limited market, it has created its own mark in the regional film history by producing about 60 films in 45 years. Ethnographic film is the dominant interest and practice among visual anthropologists. There is no standard agreed-upon definition of the genre, and the popular assumption is that it is a documentary about “exotic” people, thereby broadening the term “ethnographic” to stand for any statement about culture. Some scholars argue that all film is ethnographic. The most important attribute of ethnographic film is the degree to which it is informed by ethnographic understanding. Ethnography is the systematic study of people and culture. To define “Ethnographic film is film that reflects ethnographic understanding”. There are few ethnographic films in Tulu language. In this context a study will be conducted to explore the ethnographic aspects in the film Kanchilda Bale which was released in the year 2011. The main objective of this study is to find out how closely film can approach the highest standards and goals of the ethnography. For this study primary data was collected through qualitative content analysis of the film Kanchilda Bale. The secondary data was collected from research books, articles and websites.