Volume : VII, Issue : XI, November - 2018

TRENDS IN THE PORTRAYAL OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN MALAYALAM FILMS

Asna K Salim, Dr. K. Lokeswari

Abstract :

 The concept of social construction of reality includes the ideas of socialization by which individuals make sense of the world through various variables, one of which is the mass media. The media scene has expanded in the recent times hence there is a lot of media choices available to the audiences. Women are increasingly coming to the forefront in all domains creating a change in the traditional role of women. Since, media fail to represent the changed role of women; the way in which women are being portrayed in mass media has become a major concern. Malayalam films have been essentially male–centric, leaving a minute space for the female counterparts to evolve and grow as performers. In Malayalam films, Muslim women are either portrayed as silenced victims or as sexually available as exotic beings. There has been an overabundance of misconceptions and misrepresentations of Muslim women in television and film, which had an enormous impact on the public mind.

The study aims to analyze the trends in the portrayal of Muslim women in Malayalam films and locate the various forms of gender violence.  There is also a need to examine whether education is shown as a means to give Islamic women an identity for themselves and whether marriage in the lives of Muslim women is being portrayed in a stereotypical manner, in Malayalam films. Feminist Film theory is used by the researcher to find out various methodologies and perspectives contained in the films.

 The study takes a qualitative approach to analyze the portrayal of Muslim women in Malayalam movies. The movies selected for the study are Kilichundan Mampazham, Padam Onn Oru Vilapam, Perumazhakkalam and Thattathin Marayathu. The study uses both content analysis and mis–en–scene analysis based on four elements and five parameters. Mis–en–scene analysis (scene by scene analysis) refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangements such as composition, sets, props, actors, costumes and lighting. The six parameters taken into consideration for mis–en–scene analysis of the selected movies are title, performance, close–up and gaze, sets and props and music and sound. The four elements taken for content analysis are education, marriage, modesty or chastity and status of Muslim women

Article: Download PDF    DOI : https://www.doi.org/10.36106/paripex  

Cite This Article:

TRENDS IN THE PORTRAYAL OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN MALAYALAM FILMS , Asna K Salim, Dr. K. Lokeswari , PARIPEX-INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH : Volume-7 | Issue-11 | November-2018

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