: Modern Malayalam cinema is at the forefront of interrogating toxic masculinity and traditional gender roles. Films like The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) offered a scathing, universally acclaimed critique of the mundane, systemic oppression of women within domestic spaces in Kerala.
"Then came the new wave," she said. "Adoor. Aravindan. G. Aravindan was a cartoonist, you know. He had never been to a film school. But he made films that were like paintings. Slow, deliberate, full of silence."