Unjustifiable Justice: Caste, Oppression, and Violent Retaliation in Selected Malayalam Cinema

Aiswarya Sudarsan

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i01.36271

Unjustifiable Justice: Caste, Oppression, and Violent Retaliation in Selected Malayalam Cinema

Author(s)	Aiswarya Sudarsan
Country	India
Abstract	Film is a reflection of cultural, political and ethical ideologies of society. But we always see bias towards the representation of particular gender and caste in movies which thereby create a distorted stereotypes in the audience. Dalit heroes and heroines are by themselves a rarity in the Malayalam cinemas. When they are represented, they are represented as a passive submissive subject. They always had upper-caste heroes as their saviours. Violence is always used by the privileged caste as an apparatus to humiliate a person and community belonging to the lower caste thereby implicating dalits are incapable of protecting themselves and their family. Caste and class become a possible source of abetment of violence. Movies show us that caste-based violence against dalits are always socially tolerated and excused. This article explores how movies utilize violence as a voice for the unheard, analysing narratives like Ayyappanum Koshiyum, Kala, and “Pra. Thoo. Mu.”, through the lens of Franz Fanon's potentialities of violence. Fanon theorises that violence enables the colonised to restructure their country politically and also, recreate themselves and resume a self-determining existence. The major characters in the movies aforementioned come from contrasting social background, one is the representative of the exploited and the other, a beneficiary of centuries of exploitation. Hence, we see violence embeds in itself a strong capacity for renewal and new life. This paper contends that while violence is not condoned, resistance is emphatically justified. Moreover, it delves into how upper castes employ violence to perpetuate dominance and discrimination, while Dalits deploy the same tool to assert their identity and hold oppressors accountable.
Keywords	Violence, Revenge, Dalits, Malayalam Dalit Cinema, Franz Fanon.
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 1, January-February 2025
Published On	2025-02-02
Cite This	Unjustifiable Justice: Caste, Oppression, and Violent Retaliation in Selected Malayalam Cinema - Aiswarya Sudarsan - IJFMR Volume 7, Issue 1, January-February 2025. DOI 10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i01.36271
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i01.36271
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g83xw5

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Unjustifiable Justice: Caste, Oppression, and Violent Retaliation in Selected Malayalam Cinema

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