69. Rajesh James

Abstract 69
Rajesh James

Quest(ion)ing the  imagined  ikka/ummachi  Identities :
The Play of Biriyani and Thattam in Usthad Hotel and Thattathin Marayathu

Abstract

It is time to reevaluate the way how Malayalam cinema represented and galvanized certain ideologies and images by which certain individual and group identities are questioned, interrogated, interpreted and misrepresented in the light of terrorist attacks, cultural changes and religious groupings especially in the Malabar regions of Kerala. Main stream Malayalam cinema in general constructs an illusory image of Muslim identity as people of repressed sexual desires, of terrorist lineage, of food crazy and money minded. Such stereotyping strategy is indirectly evident in the recent released Usthad Hotel and Thattathin Marayathu. The former, scripted by Anjali Menon, creates an imaginary space of karrimikka where he cooks and serves delicious dishes. The movie idealizes and idolizes his profession to the extent of derogating those Muslims who pursue some other profession and silently profess that an ideal ‘Musalman’ is one who lives in poverty like karimikka, which is questionable. The latter movie, scripted by Vinneth Sreenivasan, films a Muslim girl as a fetishistic and exotic object. The movie silently professes an ideology that an ‘Ummachi’ girl’s dream can be materialized only out of her religion and with the intervention of an upper caste man. The paper explores such ideological silences with reliance to Deluze, Guttari, Agamben and other Postcolonial, Image and Identity Theorists.