Malabar Home Films; Institutionalization of Alternative Film

Abstract

#post_excerptThis book has been written in mind keeping the needs of knowing about the Malabar (middle part of Kerala, India) and their film culture. The coverage and passion of people towards arts and how they cope up with those artists to make it institutionalize and industry. The communities undergo ever more complex situations during the initial time of visual media and towards the film. The cultural barriers struck them and the book points how they overcome those situations. As a medium, Cinema had always been an influencing media among the common people. Throughout the century the movie had been used as a tool to propagate and reinforce ideological concepts. This political dimension is something that cinema had hide behind its entertainment mask. A home cinema is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for family viewers. These types of films are not released in any public theatre but through CD ROMs and DVDs. They go directly to the audience. Home films have been created new waves in the Malayalam film industry. Recent trends in the mainstream film have been proving that. Comparing to mainstream Malayalam cinema, Home films come under the small-scale film production industry. Home films have their position between classical Malayalam films and Malayalam commercial films. ‘While all Malayalam commercial films and classical films aim at financial profit and awards, the home films aim to reform its audience through its unique style of portraying issues, themes or problems related to Malabar Muslims’. The book is discussed about the different aspects that contribute to Malabar home films' in the resurgence of Malabar people especially with references to media literacy and popularity. The book indicated a huge satisfaction among the community. I hope the book will be useful to all those who are trying to understand the complex relationship between the media and community and how that media changes the community and their level of thought. If this book has moved an inch towards understanding such a complex topic and propelled you to think about democratic reforms of the film culture of a community,