India, June 2 -- This is also a book about cinephilia. Is that how you would characterise Kerala or does that only exist in pockets?

The present-day Malayalam cinema is in itself partly a result of cinephilia. This cinephilia might not be very obvious on the surface in Kerala, but is very much deep-rooted across the State thanks to the hundreds of film societies that have remained active here over the past many decades. That culture which originated in the 1960s has reinvented and sustained itself even in times when film societies were expected to die out. Malayalam subtitling of English and foreign language films through a network of film society volunteers is a case in point. It is perhaps a reflection of this cinephilia that filmmaker...