Anand Pandian, “Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation” (Duke UP, 2015)

Do we live in a real world or a ‘reel world,’ in which life begins to feel like a film? In this wonderful ethnography of the Tamil film industry, Anand Pandian explores topics as grand, rich and timeless as those explored in film itself love, desire, rhythm, wonder as a way of unpacking what it means to be creative. In doing so Reel World: An Anthropology of Creation (Duke University Press, 2015) takes its readers from the deserts of the middle east and the mountains of Europe to India’s archaeological sites and less trodden city streets. Striking in its bold writing choices and occasionally laugh out loud funny in its ethnographic honesty the book is a truly original and engaging study that speaks to topics and themes well beyond the Tamil film industry.

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