On Screen Forbidden Relationships: The Depiction of Extramarital Affairs in New Wave Malayalam Films

Movies often duplicate changes in the society and they sometimes persuade changes as well. Recently, controversy on new wave films became the disputed subject of the Malayalam film industry. The issues which were formerly treated as proscribed by the societal order are now boldly exposed before the Malayali viewers with the help of these new experimental movies. Extramarital affairs are always there in our society, but now, it’s become common enough that we find examples from our neighbouring circles. A prejudiced society supports men to be a polygamist, but today’s independent and bold woman also says she too is capable of all this. The pretence inbuilt in our fascination with stories of affairs in novels, Television and movies where we idolize the experiences of people having affairs, while at the same time pass judgment on people in real life who engage in the same behaviour. On one hand, we go into raptures over monogamy, but on the other, we unintentionally make a payment to a milieu that supports affairs. The present study analyzes how extramarital affairs have been portrayed in three new wave Malayalam movies – Beautiful, Cocktail and Traffic through narrative analysis.

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