Film Music: Southern Area

For centuries, traditions of musical dance-drama flourished, such as the classical kathakaḷi dramas of Kerala and the folk terukkūttu dramas of Tamil Nadu, which dramatized tales from Hindu mythology, long before the advent of film technology. In the late nineteenth century, a renaissance of these traditions took place. Drama companies arose in which actors sang and danced, and the playwrights composed music. Cinema entered this cultural niche, long occupied by musical...