No discussion of Kerala culture is complete without the red flag of communism. Kerala is the only Indian state to have democratically elected a communist government repeatedly. This political consciousness saturates its cinema.
By the 1970s, while mainstream cinema was churning out star-driven melodramas, two auteurs— and G. Aravindan —rewrote the rules. Their work is the definitive intersection of high art and authentic anthropology.
The 1970s produced "parallel cinema" icons like John Abraham ( Amma Ariyan ) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who dissected the failure of leftist movements. However, the more interesting cultural marker is the urban, middle-class communist as portrayed by the legendary screenwriter Sreenivasan.
These films also dissected the Gulf culture. The 80s and 90s saw a massive migration of Malayalis to the Middle East. The Gulf Returned character—with his gold chains, fake American accent, and shiny suitcase—became a comic archetype, reflecting Kerala’s complex love-hate relationship with remittance money.