The Politics and Aesthetics of Male Homosexuality in Malayalam Cinema: Contextualizing the Film Ka Bodyscapes (2016)

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the Malayalam film Ka Bodyscapes (2016), this article attempts to historically trace and critically engage with the representations of gay sexuality in Malayalam cinema from the South Indian state of Kerala. It interrogates how Ka Bodyscapes brought to the forefront hitherto unexplored visual dynamics of the gay male body and homoeroticism on screen while troubling the heterosexual dynamics of the Malayalam film industry. By situating this film within the history of representation of male homosexuality in Malayalam cinema and the changing regimes of queer politics and feminist interventions in Kerala in the last decade, the article argues how the film’s radical visual representation of gay sexuality at the intersection of caste and religion problematizes the heterosexual family/state, thereby challenging the patriarchal masculinity that marginalizes women and sexual minorities in Kerala.

KEYWORDS:

• Homosexuality
• Queer
• Queer cinema
• Gay
• Masculinity
• Malayalam films
• Kerala
• India

Acknowledgments

An initial draft of this article was presented at the “Talking Films Online”(TFO), a forum for discussion of cinema in June 2023. The authors thank the organisers, Nikhila H. and Gita Viswanath, for this opportunity. This helped us to discuss the article with the film director Jayan K. Cherian himself and other important film scholars.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Nalini Jameela published her autobiography Oru Laingika Thozhilaliyude Atmakatha (The Autobiography of a Sex Worker) in June 2005. Widely advertised as the first autobiography of a sex worker in Kerala, Jameela later came up with the second version of her autobiography within six months [titled Njan Laingika Thozhilali: Nalini Jameelayude Atmakatha (Me Sex Worker: The Autobiography of Nalini Jameela)]. For more details, see (Mokkil, 2019)

2. The Malayalam film industry mainly based in the state of Kerala(India), produces films in the regional language of Malayalam.

3. See https://www.deccanchronicle.com/140628/entertainment-mollywood/article/my-life-partner-was-delayed-due-stigma-attached-gay-community

4. See https://indianexpress.com/article/india/censor-board-film-certification-cinematograph-bill-cbfc-7365589/

5. See https://thewire.in/culture/ka-bodyscapes-cbfc-refusal

6. The film shows Harris and Vishnu living together in an apartment, working as a painter and a newspaper intern respectively. However, the female protagonist Sia is shown facing problems with patriarchy both at her home and work place.

7. This is similar to an incident that happened in a factory in Kochi where 42 women were stripped and searched on finding a sanitary napkin in the toilet. This led to a public uproar that eventually led to a campaign called “Red Alert: You’ve Got a Napkin!” where the protesters mailed used and unused sanitary napkins to the company. See https://scroll.in/article/698178/kerala-activists-fight-menstrual-taboos-by-mailing-napkins-to-factory-where-women-were-strip-searched

8. It is interesting to note that the film was released just before the Sabarimala protest in Kerala following the Supreme Court of India verdict allowing women of menstruating age to enter the temple. The verdict was a watershed moment in the history of the state revealing the tensions in the gender regimes of Kerala (Devika, 2020).

9. Menstruation protests are the series of protests that occurred in Kerala against the menstrual taboo persisting in various spheres. Standing Strike was a protest organized in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram for solving the problems in the allotment of land to the tribals communities in Kerala. Sitting Strike was organized by women who work in the textile shops in Kerala for their rights to sit when they work.

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Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.