ABSTRACT
Kerala’s traditional early art forms were directly inclined towards the hierarchical caste structure, and their aesthetics were moulded by the sensibilities groomed by Hindu religious codes. The performance history of Kerala has its roots in caste-based art forms/ritualistic performance, which reconfirmed the caste-based social order founded on the codes of purity and desecration. In this chapter, I look into the ‘feminine spaces’ within the performance history of Kerala by analysing the first heroine of the Malayalam film Vigathakumaran (1928), P. K. Rosy, and the heroine of the second silent film Marthandavarma (1932), Devaki Bai, their disconcerting life as an actress, and their forceful exile from their homeland and the art life. This chapter looks explicitly into the sociological and historical aspects that lead to their invisibility and analyses how the early Malayalam cinema became a vehicle that subverted gender and caste relationships within and outside the cultural scenario in Kerala. How could film as a medium topple the strategies adopted by caste society to curtail the entry of women into public space by disseminating the image of women via and through the film into the restricted caste-ridden social space?
