Maya, Tradition and Modernity in Shaji Karun’s Vaanaprastham
Abstract
The 1999 Indian/French film, Vaanaprastham (The Last Dancer), reflects the changing world of a South Indian community by depicting life episodes of a Kathakali dancer. Still engaged with traditional social mores and mythologies, the community struggles to absorb influences of modernity—altered expectations of the individual and of gender and caste relations. The story is mediated through the foundational philosophy of maya: that appearances are illusory.
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