RE-PRESENTATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY ON SCREEN: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE MALAYALAM FILMS MOOTHON AND KAATHAL- THE CORE AS REPRESENTATIVES OF CULTURAL TRANSITION

Abstract

Films are a significant part of popular culture that form the frame for exhibiting the culture of the times. Cinema shares a symbiotic relationship with culture by providing a platform for cultural representations and drawing inspiration from the cultural artefacts simultaneously. Two of the phenomenal off-centred Malayalam films, Moothon directed by Geetu Mohandas and Kaathal-The Core directed by Jeo Baby, become the recent trailblazers by unleashing the cultural transitions in exploring Homosexuality, its impact on the Malayalee audience and the necessity of comprehending the notion of queer space in the present Kerala society. Drawing theoretical insights from Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick's influential work The Epistemology of the Closet, Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”, Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” and Michael Foucault's concept of Heterotopia, this study explores the existential struggles and the trauma behind expressing one's unusual sexuality. Moreover, both the utopian and the dystopian perspectives in understanding the lives of the gay communities are analysed in this study with reference to the selected films. This paper is an attempt to focus on concepts such as free life, gender fluidity and queer spaces that are evolving around us.