Everywhere Bharathiraja looked, he seemed to see potential. He looked around rural Tamil Nadu — the red soil of its fields, dried river beds and waving palm trees — and saw its cinematic beauty. Until he trained the lens on village life in his directorial debut 16 Vayathinile, Tamil cinema’s aesthetics were bound by the limits of the studio and the sensibilities of its largely city-based storytellers. They determined what could be shot and whose stories could be........

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