There is a huge wave of adulation for Malayalam cinema in recent times, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, when streamers and dome...
There is a huge wave of adulation for Malayalam cinema in recent times, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, when streamers and domestic viewing are replacing the theatrical experience. For instance, The New Yorker hails Dillesh Pothan’s Joji as “the first major film of the Covid-19 pandemic”. Indian film sites are gaga over the “new wave” of super-realist films from Kerala. While sharing all the excitement and exuberance, one also needs to see this phenomenon in its industrial, socio-historical and political contexts.
In the last 15 years or so, Malayalam cinema has witnessed a generational shift. Its look and feel, themes and narrative styles were transformed by new directors, scenarists, actors and technicians.
In terms of exhibition and audience, a lot was happening. In most towns and cities, the real estate boom of the 1990s gobbled up the prime spaces occupied by movie theatres. Most of them were being demolished and converted into multiplexes. From around 2,000+ theatres in the 1,980s, Kerala now has around 800+ theatres.
This was accompanied by the decreasing share of box office returns and the increasing dependence on television for economic sustenance. The logic of television ratings, which is linked to the presence of stars, further strengthened the stranglehold of A-listers over...
