Representation of Aged Female Fans in Select Malayalam Films: An Intersectional Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsParvathy NParvathy N is an Institute Fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India.Priyanka TripathiPriyanka Tripathi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India.Notes1 The 1913 release of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra heralded the commencement of the Indian film industry, which includes a vast range of regional industries producing films in languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, etc. Often, these industries are known by their sobriquets, such as Bollywood (Hindi), Mollywood (Malayalam), Kollywood (Tamil), Sandalwood (Kannada), and Tollywood (Bengali), etc.2 Racial categorization of women from the “African continent” or the “growing African diaspora” (Macaulay 1996 Macaulay, Delia Jarrett, ed. 1996. Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism: Writings on Black Women. New York and London: Routledge. [Google Scholar], ix). From the Euro-centric narrative, Black women are marginalized as an ethnic minority/“other.” Crenshaw’s work identified that the discrimination of Black women in the US is an overlap of race as well as gender.3 Beginning in 1928 with J.C. Daniel’s silent film Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child), the Malayalam film industry popularly known by the sobriquet Mollywood is established regional film industry under the umbrella of Indian cinema. The significance and distinction of this regional cinematic industry is in its fervent engagement in themes of “social realism in its representational systems than Hindi and other regional language films” (Nair 2015 Nair, P. K. 2015. “Gender Equations in Malayalam Cinema.” In Women in Malayalam Cinema: Naturalising Gender Hierarchies, edited by Meena Pillai, 40–57. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Private Limited. [Google Scholar],40; Nair, Ramanathaiyer, and Shoesmith 2000 Nair, Lalitha, Sundar Ramanathaiyer, and Brian Shoesmith. 2000. “Frail Bodies, Fighting Spirit: Images of the Elderly in Malayalam Cinema.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 23 (sup1): 31–42. doi:10.1080/00856400008723397[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 32).4 Popularly known as the “celluloid queen of Malayalam cinema,” Sheela began her cinematic career in the Tamil film Paasam (Affection, 1962) opposite M.G. Ramachandran. From 1962 to 1985, Sheela acted in more than 400 films before taking a break until 2003, when she returned to the silver screen in Sathyan Anthikad’s Manasinakkare. Besides the four Kerala State Awards and the J.C. Daniel Award, Sheela also holds the Guinness record for being paired opposite the same actor (Prem Nazir) (Johnson and Niveditha 2016 Johnson, Seena, and D. Niveditha. 2016. “Female Stardom: An Analysis of the Star Image Construction of Malayalam Actress Sheela.” International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 2 (9): 1–8. [Google Scholar], 3–4).5 Affectionately referred to as Lalettan (Brother Lal) by Kerala’s (India) cinephile community, Mohanlal has established himself as a “household” name and “trope” via his dynamic depictions, instilling in the “heterogeneous” culture of Kerala’s (India) a culturally “homogenous” identity of Ettan or brother (Pillai 2015 Pillai, Meena, ed. 2015. Women in Malayalam Cinema: Naturalising Gender Hierarchies. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Private Limited. [Google Scholar], 102).6 Recognized as Malayalam cinema’s Nithyaharitha Nayakan (Evergreen Hero) (V.N 2017), Abdul Khader, who adopted the stage name Prem Nazir, is one of the most influential contributions from Kerala to the oeuvre of Indian cinema. Beginning his career in the 1952 film Marumakal (Daughter-in-Law), Prem Nazir holds the Guinness record for acting opposite the same costar (Sheela, 107 films) (Johnson and Niveditha 2016 Johnson, Seena, and D. Niveditha. 2016. “Female Stardom: An Analysis of the Star Image Construction of Malayalam Actress Sheela.” International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 2 (9): 1–8. [Google Scholar], 4).