Reference request: Arithmetic circuit complexity I am completely new to this field. I want to read the prelims and unfortunately, I don't see any book written for a beginner in this area. Can anyone give me some basic starting points/references(text/video) for a gentle introduction? I found these two given below.
Determinant versus permanent by Manindra Agarwal https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6a05/a4fe63e409ba040b890bbf5da0f3b1ca7085.pdf
Arithmetic circuits by Amir Shpilka
https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~shpilka/publications/SY10.pdf
Is there any other material which can be more appropriate for a beginner?
This depends on what you want to do. For more structural questions there is a relatively recent survey by Meena Mahajan:

Meena Mahajan: Algebraic Complexity Classes. 

There is also the book by Bürgisser:

Peter Bürgisser: Completeness and Reduction in Algebraic Complexity Theory.

For Geometric Complexity Theory, you might try the theses of Joshua Grochow or Christian Ikenmeyer. I think both of them have introduction into the field, but I must admit that I have read neither of them.