The good the bad and the ugly the shifting paradigms of the christian hero stereotyping in malayalam cinema 1990 to 2017

Abstract

Cinema, as a discourse and a praxis of representation produces, reproduces and circulates images and symbols about the self and the other, men and women, and individuals and communities. This thesis examines the representation of Christian community power and Christian masculinities in Malayalam cinema from 1990 to 2017, focusing on the construction, reinforcement, and contestation of hegemonic masculine ideals. Malayalam cinema has historically elevated Syrian Christian masculinity through archetypes such as the hegemonic ―Achayans,‖ dominant bureaucrats, and overriding planter-cum-settlers. Drawing from film theory, cultural studies and masculinity studies, and using frameworks from Foucault, Bourdieu, Althusser, and Connell, the research explores how cinematic narratives construct selfhood and community identity with regard to class, caste, and gender. A historical survey of Malayalam cinema is carried out to reveal the evolution and self-fashioning of the Christian male as an ideologically dominant subjectivity. Critiquing the marginalisation of subaltern Christian groups in Malayalam cinema, the research traces how socio-political factors such as caste and class contribute to the formation of a hegemonic identity of Syrian Christians in the Kerala public sphere. The mainstream popular cinema becomes a tool in reinforcing hegemonies of class, caste and gender through the stereotypes of an all controlling patriarch, and thereby constructs community power. Challenging this, the depiction of subordinate masculinities such as those of Latin and Dalit Christians demonstrates the various subcultures marginalized in the process in a different genre and form. The research argues that even positive stereotypes function to homogenise community identities into a Syrian Christian one and cancel out the existence of diverse marginal communities in the 20th century. Malayalam cinema in the 21st century, nevertheless, demonstrates a contested cultural space where hegemonic Christian masculinities are both reinforced and critically deconstructed.