Films like Joseph (2018) and Nayattu (The Hunt, 2021) use the police procedural format to critique the state’s political machinery. Nayattu follows three police officers on the run after being falsely implicated in a custodial death case. As they flee through the forests of Wayanad, the film illustrates how caste and political affiliation (Congress, Communist, or BJP) decide your fate. It argues that Kerala’s celebrated secularism is often a mask for deep-seated brutality.

That silence has finally broken. Filmmakers like Dr. Biju ( Ka Bodyscapes , 2016) and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan ( Chola , 2019) have dragged caste violence into the frame. Chola (2019) is a brutal 108-minute single-shot film about two men, an upper-caste father, and a Dalit boy, on a road trip that ends in tragedy. It forces the audience to confront the "untouchability" that still exists in Kerala’s remote villages, a truth that tourism brochures hide.

As Kerala has sent its sons and daughters to the Gulf (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) for five decades, the Pravasi (Non-Resident Keralite) has become a central figure. Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016) and Virus (2019) touch upon the NRI complex—the man who returns from Dubai with gold chains and a fractured sense of belonging. The cinema explores the loneliness of this economic migration, a feeling every Keralite family knows intimately. Caste, Silence, and the Unspoken For all its progressivism, Malayalam cinema has had a problematic relationship with caste. Kerala is often marketed as a "secular" state, but historically, it is one of the most caste-stratified societies in India (Savarna dominance of Nairs and Nambudiris, with Ezhavas and Dalit communities forming the labor force).

The films of Priyadarshan, particularly the early classics like Chithram (1988) and Kilukkam (1991), used slapstick and misunderstanding to critique class and caste hierarchies. Later, the arrival of Siddique-Lal’s Godfather (1991) redefined the "family faction" genre—a staple in Keralite life where extended families live in compound houses ( tharavadu ) and fight over property and respect.

Simultaneously, commercial cinema was undergoing its own quiet revolution. Screenwriter M.T. Vasudevan Nair brought literary gravitas to mass films. Nirmalyam (1973) showed the decay of the Brahminical priest class, juxtaposing religious ritual against economic starvation—a daring act in a state where temple culture remains fiercely guarded. What truly distinguishes Malayalam cinema from its neighbors is the celebration of the sahachari (the ordinary man). In the 1980s and 90s, the legendary writer-director Padmarajan and his contemporary Bharathan created a genre known as "Middle Cinema"—artistic but commercial, accessible but deep.