A Queer Reading of “New Generation” Malayalam Cinema

Abstract

This chapter looks at the queer possibilities of reading the idea of travel and modern libidinal imaginations at the site of ‘new generation' Malayalam cinema, a recent origin of a genre of films that introduced a new style of filmmaking, format, themes, and young stars in the industry. The spatial mobility associated with the notion of travel and the performative space of love and desire may form the conjuncture for expounding the fluidity of the queer moments within which intersections of power relations. Power relations are played out, and heteronormative conjugal and romantic ties are resisted, subverted, or reproduced. The trope of travel becomes the site that embodies, at varying historical and social contexts, the statist colonising/civilising mission, individuated liberal emancipatory utopias, and non-conforming and subverting queer desires. It is argued that the queer moments explored through a queer approach offer the theoretical possibility of reading romantic relationship and friendship beyond the homo-social and popular heteronormative frameworks.