| Pub. Date | : March, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of English Studies |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJES010322 |
| Author Name | :Sathyaraj Venkatesan and Rajesh Jamese |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 14 |
Middle East (ME) migration is a recurrent theme in Malayalam cinema. This paper analyzes four decades of Malayalam cinema's engagement with ME migration in order to conceptualize its multiple imaginings and to investigate geopolitical experiences and practices of this trend in Kerala. Accordingly, these films can be broadly classified into three major categories: (a) ME as a site of emancipation and economic empowerment; (b) ME as a 'haunting presence,' thus problematizing the earlier abstractions of the region as a safe place; and (c) ME as 'precarious presence., In so doing, the paper not only identifies and differentiates key shifts in the representation of ME migration in Malayalam cinema, but also teases out the complex stories of desire, space, and geography.
Since the thematization of immigration in films such as Vilkkanundu Swapnangal (1980), 'Middle East1 (hereafter ME) migration' has been a recurrent theme in Malayalam cinema.2 By visualizing the individual/collective aspirations and material experiences of ME migrants from Kerala (a southwestern Indian state), Malayalam cinema has constructed certain discursive imaginary of ME from the variegated sociopolitical and cultural vantage point of views. In the first decades of its initial presence, ME is formulated in terms of emancipation and economic empowerment. In the nineties, ME becomes a 'haunting presence,' thus problematizing the glossy images of the earlier abstractions of ME. In the post-millennial times, ME is imagined as a 'precarious presence' in Malayalam cinema. That is, one can trace the discursive and narrative reorientation of ME from a land of phenomenal place to a dystopic place. This paper analyzes four decades of Malayalam cinema's engagement with ME migration in order to conceptualize multiple imaginings of ME as well as to investigate geopolitical experiences and practices of ME