A Kerala Studies Blog
With streaming services bringing transnational attention to Malayalam cinema, it becomes important to examine the nature of Kerala’s “new gen” cinema and to locate it in a longer history. C S Venkiteswaran, film critic, Don Palathara, film director, and Jolly Chirayath, actor, feature in Ala’s first audio essay on cinema in Kerala.
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Purushapretham has been among this year’s most intriguing releases so far, seeming like a police procedural at the outset but revealing hidden depths. Deepti delves into how the director draws viewers into a complex ecology of human and nonhuman actors, marking an exciting addition to the emergent ‘cli-fi’ genre in Malayalam cinema.
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How does Mammootty’s linguistic prowess enable him to move from being the Muslim “other” to an embodiment of the “standard” Malayalee man? Afeef Ahmed analyses the multiple ways by which Mammootty, both as an actor and an individual, negotiates his identity and selfhood through language.
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In this episode, Ala’s Deepti Sreeram speaks with Sudha Padmaja Francis, an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker about her practice as a filmmaker and her documentary Ormajeevikal, a film that captures the city of Kozhikode through a community of music lovers
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കെ ആർ നാരായണൻ ഇൻസ്റ്റിറ്റിയൂട്ടിൽ നടന്ന വിദ്യാർത്ഥി സമരം എങ്ങനെയാണു ഒരു ബദൽ ജ്ഞാനരൂപം നിർമിക്കുന്നതെന്നു കുഞ്ഞുണ്ണി സജീവ് എഴുതുന്നു.
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കേരളത്തിന്റെ ആവാസവ്യവസ്ഥയിലും തോട്ടം സമ്പദ്‌വ്യവസ്ഥയിലും വവ്വാലുകൾക്കുള്ള പങ്കിനെക്കുറിച്ചു പശ്ചിമഘട്ടത്തിൽ നടത്തിയ ഗവേഷണത്തെ മുൻനിർത്തി കാദംബരി എഴുതുന്നു. അതോടൊപ്പം വൈറസ്, മഹേഷിന്റെ പ്രതികാരം എന്നീ സിനിമകൾ ഈ സഹവാസത്തെ സൂക്ഷ്മതയോടെ എങ്ങനെയാണു അവതരിപ്പിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത് എന്നും ഈ ലേഖനം പരിശോധിക്കുന്നു.
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Focussing on two Malayalam films from the last decade—22 Female Kottayam (Aashiq Abu, 2012) and Varathan (Amal Neerad, 2018)—Arun Ramesh argues that despite their apparently progressive politics, new-generation films continue to be influenced by feudal norms and practices.
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Jaya Thampi revisits Sachy’s Ayyappanum Koshiyum (2020) to explore its cinematic soundscape and the many lives of Nanjiyamma’s songs in and beyond the film.
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With renewed global interest in G. Aravindan’s 1979 film, Kummatty, Amal Nath Rajeevan revisits the film to examine the elements of magical realism that imbues it with timeless cinematic pleasure.
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The idea of a ‘mass film’ is an eminently recognisable one in south India, but just what is it? How do we make sense of the aesthetics and feelings that make fans say, ‘nalla mass padam’, and just why is it missing in some recent Malayalam films? Arjun Ramachandran writes.
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