Department of Communication

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/17

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Understanding suburban liminality: The representation of Mumbai in Indian cinema
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Flajšarová, Pavlína; Flajšar, Jiří; Freitag, Florian; Nicolaides, Becky; Wiese, Andrew
This chapter examines how suburban Mumbai is portrayed in Indian cinema, exploring the representation of its liminality where progressive and regressive elements coalesce. It examines films like Deewar (1975), Satya (1998), Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and Gully Boy (2019) to explore how these films navigate the balance between progress and regress within the suburban context. On one hand, they depict the aspirational dynamics of the suburbs, where dreams are born and realized. On the other hand, they expose the underbelly of this very dreamland, marked by poverty, inequality, and crime. This study highlights the critical role of spatial representation in shaping the perception of suburban Mumbai as a liminal space. The confined chawls, busy markets, and congested lanes reflect the conflicting aspirations and values that define the suburban experience in Mumbai. This study argues that suburban Mumbai is a liminal space where traditional cultural values intersect with modern, often conflicting, urban influences, creating a complex environment that blurs the boundaries between the rural and the cosmopolitan. It shows how Indian cinema represents the dynamic and conflicting nature of suburban existence in Mumbai.
Sovereign consumers in a pro-local media ecosystem: the future of OTT streaming in India
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Menon, Devadas; Arao, Danilo Araña; Lim, Weng Marc; Cheong, Huey Fen
This chapter is a review-based examination of the future of Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming platforms in India. The significant shift brought about by OTT platforms has redefined the creation and distribution of regional content, granting creators unprecedented freedom from content moderation. While this freedom enhances artistic expression and user satisfaction, it raises concerns about its impact on cultural production through media. This chapter employs a literature review approach to analyse the future of OTT in India within a media discourse that leans towards establishing a pro-local media language. It addresses the limitations of existing censorship comparisons between traditional Indian television and OTT platforms, emphasising the need for a more nuanced understanding of content moderation on Indian OTT platforms. The significant impact of OTT streaming platforms in India is that they challenge traditional media paradigms and contribute to a new cultural mode of interactivity. By promoting global and local content, OTTs are fostering a dynamic hybrid culture industry that reconfigures existing cultural norms and practices.
Exploring the future of urban death: speculative design and the concept of necropolis 4.0
(2025) Baradaran Rahimi, Farzan
As urban areas rapidly expand, they grapple with multifaceted issues such as population growth, climate change, land shortage, resource constraints, and social inequalities. Proactive planning for the future is essential to foster the development of sustainable and resilient cities capable of adapting to evolving needs. One such needs is designing for death in the urban future, given the outdated, polluting, cumbersome, and unsustainable methods currently in use. Drawing inspiration from theories of social space, hybrid space, and the historical concept of the necropolis, while integrating technological advancements such as extended reality, super artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biodegradable materials, and Web 4.0, this study aims to reimagine the design for death in the urban future through three alternative scenarios. Integrating technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution into speculative design approach, experts' evaluation identifies Necropolis 4.0 as the closest scenario to the ideal solution. Findings serve a dual purpose. First, focusing on Necropolis 4.0, establishes a nature-human-machine relationship and paves the way for designers, planners, and policymakers to envision a novel, green, and sustainable design for death in the urban future. Second, methodological contribution of this research enhances the way we use speculative design approach in urban planning.
Agile digitization for historic architecture using 360° capture, deep learning, and virtual reality
(2025) Baradaran Rahimi, Farzan; Demers, Claude M.H.; Karimi Dastjerdi, Mohammad Reza; Lalonde, Jean-François
The agile digitization of historic buildings is becoming increasingly critical for preservation, conservation, and maintenance in response to climate change, geopolitical conflicts, and other threats of destruction. This paper explores whether deep learning-based novel-view synthesis, combined with commercial 360° cameras and standalone virtual reality headsets, can streamline the digitization process for historic architecture. A case study of a historic interior in Québec, Canada, is used to evaluate the method's capacity to enhance agility, accuracy, and efficiency. The findings demonstrate that this approach significantly reduces complexity, labor, cost, and time while improving precision and workflow. These outcomes offer particular value to heritage experts, building engineers, and creative professionals seeking practical tools for agile digitization of historic architecture. By advancing digitization methods, this study also inspires future research into the broader applications of deep learning and immersive technologies for cultural heritage preservation.
Every child matters: non-normative fatherhood of care and compassion in Malayalam cinema
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Podnieks, Elizabeth; Henriksson, Helena Wahlström
This chapter surveys the evolving portrayal of fatherhood in Malayalam cinema. The chapter examines how traditional notions of parenthood in South Indian society, often centered on biological and patriarchal roles, are being challenged by narratives of adoptive fatherhood. In analyses of films like Photographer (2006), Ottaal (2014), and Pengalila (2019), the chapter discusses how these stories depict fathers who adopt and care for marginalized children, and thereby subvert entrenched caste and class dynamics. These films serve as reflections of non-normative fatherhood in regional spaces, and underscore the significance of parental care in non-Western contexts. The chapter argues that such cinematic representations advocate for social justice, inclusivity, and empathy, challenging conventional views on family and societal norms in India. Malayalam cinema, portraying adoptive caregiving as a radical act of compassion and solidarity, offers alternative perspectives on family, inheritance, and societal belonging.
Conceptualizing people’s cinema: John Abraham, Agraharathil Kazhuthai (1977), and the indie cinema of South India
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Sarkar, Jayjit; Sarkar, Anik
Malayalam filmmaker John Abraham (1937–1987) is often ranked among the greatest experimental independent filmmakers in India. His films are not only significant for discussions involving the social, cultural, political, and philosophical problems they deal with but also for the very process of filmmaking involved in their creative evolution. Abraham’s involvement in the formation of Odessa Collective—a people’s film movement for independent film productions based on public intervention and funding—made him one of the passionate proponents and forefathers of independent cinema in India. This chapter examines the crucial role of John Abraham in the development of experiential independent filmmaking in India by analysing one of his magnum opuses, the National Award-winning film Agraharathil Kazhuthai (1977) (trans. Donkey in the Brahmin Village), noted for its bold criticism of orthodox social institutions of caste, class, and subalternity that resulted in its banning and exclusion from mainstream discussions. This chapter investigates how this film became a precursor to John’s rise as a radical figure in the realm of parallel cinema in India, especially its role as a controversial work of independent art that pioneered a “new wave” movement in South Indian cinema. After winning the National Award for Best Tamil Feature Film, Agraharathil Kazhuthai reinforced the filmmaker’s quest for making authentic independent films by abandoning all possible elements of commercial mainstream cinema and developing the notion of ideal independent cinema through collective participation.
Screening divine monsters: the angry mother in Indian popular cinema
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Liddy, Susan; Flynn, Deirdre
The image of the mother is one of the most recognisable identities in Indian cinema. Representations of the Indian mother often align with the cultural archetype that portrays her as a dutiful, caring, and nurturing figure. The mother is a submissive figure who is confined to the boundaries of the domestic sphere, where she is subjected to exploitation and violence. Mothers that subvert this cultural ideal can be imagined as ‘angry’ because they are powerful transgressive figures who refuse to conform to the normalised oppressiveness of society. This chapter analyses the representation of the angry mother in contemporary Indian cinema, where motherhood is signified as a radical category with the power of destruction. It examines pan-Indian blockbuster films Bahubali: The Beginning (2015), Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018), and K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022), where the mother’s role as a powerful commanding figure helps to cement the heroic stature of the film’s hypermasculine figures. These films not only glorify the mother’s suffering as a quality that idealises Indian motherhood but also reinforce the anger of the mother as a source of inspiration for the male hero to redefine himself as a powerful, destructive figure under the shadow of his mother. For instance, the film K.G.F presents the suffering mother figure to validate its antihero, illustrating how parents perceive their children as instruments for seeking revenge. The image of the angry mother in India is a glorified, powerful agency whose commanding power enforces the male protagonist to act in favour of the mother’s desires.
Fatherhood and precarity: protective fathers and dysfunctional families in Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam and contemporary Malayalam cinema
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Wilson, Bernard; Osman, Sharifah Aishah
This chapter examines how the notion of fatherhood is associated with precarity as a sign of a dysfunctional family in contemporary Malayalam cinema, the film industry of the South Indian state Kerala. It argues that recent Malayalam films such as Drishyam (2013) have portrayed the family as a manifestation of the identity of the father. In other words, the psychological state of the father, his secrets and motives, ultimately decide the fate of the family as a structural unit in crisis, because the actions and anxieties of a paternal protagonist often emphasise the need to depend on masculinity and patriarchal privilege to solve problems. A detailed analysis of these films reveals that a male father figure is an essential component in conceptualising the notion of family in the Indian context, and his interventions and transgressions disturb the natural order of the family to conserve what is ideal for the father.
Diasporic nostalgia in Indian cinema
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
The notion of home is often romanticized using the discourse of nostalgic sentimentalism, and narratives that glorify the cultural distinctiveness of regions get highlighted in visual media. The desire to revisit the homeland through imagination is a prominent theme in Indian cinema, which is unique in its stylistic narrative approaches to capture the syncretism of the Indian diaspora. This study analyses Bollywood cinema to understand how it propagates the cultural text of India through nostalgia. The global reception of Indian film stars like Shah Rukh Khan—who, for example, has been cited as the embodiment of the Bollywood romantic hero—invoked a diasporic emotional appeal toward India through blockbuster films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). Since Indians are known for their ubiquitous presence all around the world, their stories interact with distinct cultural elements, ideological positions, and contradictory customs associated with the lands they live in. This chapter argues that diasporic nostalgia is not always about the desire to return to a homeland or the revival of an idealized cultural past. Nostalgia promulgates a discourse of cultural integration through which subjects negotiate their contemporary modern identities with historical, cultural, and ritualistic elements of the homeland. The emergence of Shah Rukh Khan in the 1990s Bollywood cinema can be observed as an icon of the new cosmopolitan hero whose existence shows how nostalgia is used as a tool to bring back conservative cultural values, nationalist sentiments, family dynamics, and individual freedom to a globalized arena of India’s post-neoliberal times.
Review: Prison Dancer: The Musical — a nod to the Filipino as a world-class talent
(2023) Rosales, Rey
Prison Dancer: The Musical has all the hallmarks of a hit musical: catchy tunes, perfectly executed choreography, and a storyline that captures the hearts of audiences, regardless of background. The show has the potential to equal or surpass the success of another all-Filipino cast musical, Here Lies Love, which premiered on Broadway in 2023.
Decolonizing journalism education: integrating global Indigenous knowledge systems and upholding educational sovereignty
(2025) Ntibinyane, Ntibinyane Alvin
This essay explores the concept of decolonizing journalism education through the integration of Indigenous knowledge systems, focusing on educational sovereignty. Drawing from the story of my grandmother—an African Indigenous woman skilled in pottery, traditional medicine, and storytelling—it highlights how Indigenous knowledge offers a rich, immersive learning experience outside formal schooling. These practices, rooted in cultural heritage and holistic understanding, challenge the rigid structures of Western education. By integrating Michelle Bishop’s framework of Indigenous education sovereignty, which includes elements such as intergenerational reciprocity, agency, time, pattern thinking, country, and relationality, this essay advocates for an innovative and transformative approach to journalism education. The essay also uses the work of Indigenous scholars from Canada, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to provide a global perspective on educational sovereignty. It argues for moving beyond simply adding Indigenous content to reimagining education that centres Indigenous ways of knowing. Through this framework, journalism programs can become more inclusive, fostering a dynamic learning environment that values deep cultural understanding and self-determination.
Postmodernity and elevated horror in The Lodge (2019)
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
The Lodge (2019), directed by Austrian directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, explores dimensions of the disturbed psychological realm of its female protagonist, played by Riley Keough. The film's narrative establishes an unsettling atmospheric horror and is a play with elements of mental health, dysfunctional family, religious iconography, and superstitions. This chapter analyses the film through the notion of "elevated horror," a category of horror cinema that utilizes the artistic aspects of the horror genre to create a cinematic form that transgresses the archetypal jump-scare tropes of conventional horror. It argues that this form of horror relies more on obscure realities and fragmented states of the mind through symbolic and interpretive modes, thus defining postmodernity in horror cinema. This study examines the cinematic form, narrative style, and thematic concerns of The Lodge to analyse how it subverts the rational discourse of modernity and replaces it with a postmodern structure. It specifically investigates how the film's centralization of guilt and grief reflects psychological disorientation that disrupts normative social institutions like family and religion to disseminate a postmodern incredulity towards their many established metanarratives.
Dark days of Indian democracy: a historical study on the portrayal, censorship, and representation of ‘Indian emergency’ in Malayalam cinema
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan
India, the biggest democracy in the world, once experienced the worst oppression in its history when the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, on 25 June 1975. Civil liberties and personal freedom were curbed, using the constitutional powers under Article 352 of the Indian Constitution. Creativity faced the biggest casualty during the Emergency until it was withdrawn on 21 March 1977. The Southern state of Kerala being the most politically conscious and creatively corrective population, its own cinema in the Malayalam language was ineffective in its immediate response to the event. However, traces of resistance can be found in this crisis, and they are often demonstrated in tactical ways to escape the omnipotence of a censorship system. This article argues that Malayalam cinema categorically avoided representing the historical authenticity of the Emergency, on the contrary, it adopted a strategic disavowal to depoliticize it by manipulating narratives that do not identify themselves as a constructive form of resistance. Such a discourse is a new form of apolitical resistance that continues to be a characteristic of modern states sustained by political order and cultural hegemony. The spatial and temporal dimensionality of this recalcitrance was reflected in the Emergency cinema of Malayalam as ideological, personalized, and allegorical texts of narrative modes. This paper historically explores these modes as well as the role, responsibility, and status of Malayalam cinema during the political crisis of the Emergency.
Forbidden spectacles of a bygone era: an analysis of Malayalam cinema’s soft-porn noon-show culture
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
The cultural paradigms of the soft-porn era in Malayalam cinema had an emancipatory quality where the sensationalized body of the ‘bombshell’ starlets captivated the voyeuristic perceptions of regional spectators.* The celebration of these films by a suburban audience constructed a new public space for the realization of carnal desires and taboo fantasies. This article investigates how the soft-porn noon-shows contributed to a unique cultural experience of film-viewing in Kerala in the late 1990s that challenged the cultural elitism associated with regional cinema. It investigates the role of the audience in defining the historical significance of the noon-show theatres, together with their origin, popularity and fall in the larger narrative of the evolutionary metamorphosis of Malayalam cinema. The softcore phenomenon was an organic subversion of the hegemonic ideology of cinema, which has been used by upper-class cultural powers to maintain their moral presuppositions.
Sports narratives and historical nationalism: re-visiting the context and use of field hockey in Chak De! India
(2024) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
Indian cinema is known for its dramatic narratives that celebrate emotionally elevated visual spectacles through which people from different sociocultural backgrounds come across popular domains of cultural practices, social norms and historical realities that unify them. Field hockey belongs to the popular realm of sports in India which is part of the country’s national identity. India’s participation and success in field hockey at the Olympic Games make it one of the country’s most successful international sports. Indian film narratives about field hockey help to create public discourse about how the sport has historically played a role in shaping national pride and identity in India. Hockey evokes nationalism by symbolizing historical achievements, unity, and cultural identity, inspiring pride and patriotism through the portrayal of heroes, national symbols, and emotional narratives in media and public discourse. The film Chak De! India portrays Indian hockey as a patriotic unifying national narrative and as an empowering discourse that can upend traditional gender stereotypes. It delineates that hockey not only acts as a sports game for entertainment but is an indicator of nationalistic significance and cultural identity that elevates the emotional realm of Indians through the notion of patriotism.
The western gaze in RRR’s “Naatu Naatu” and the global appeal of Indian musicals
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
The global popularity of the award-winning song-dance “Naatu Naatu” from the South Indian film RRR (2022) lies in its vibrant spectacle that intertwines cultural history, political themes, and gender expressions within the framework of Indian musicals. Using textual analysis, this paper investigates how the semiotic and performative aspects of “Naatu Naatu” created a new cultural appeal in the West by representing the postcolonial and nationalist Indian subject in an ultra-modern post-globalized environment. It reveals how the dance sequence’s entertainment value can overshadow its deeper cultural significance, illustrating the tension between global appeal and cultural authenticity.
Mothers of the South: power, suffering, and identity in maternal narratives of South Indian cinema
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.
The representation of motherhood in Indian cinema is often based on conventional gender norms, its ideology and performance aligning with the traditional patrifocal social structures where women are marginalised and oppressed. This paper dissects the portrayals of motherhood in South Indian cinema that intersect with various identities in which such representations redefine the concept of motherhood with diverse socio-cultural, regional, and personal identities. It examines how motherhood representations in South Indian cinema, with a special focus on two pan-Indian blockbuster movie series: Bahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017); K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018) and K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022) glorify the suffering of the mother and fundamentally elevate the mother’s role as a commanding and influential force, contributing significantly to the heroic stature of hypermasculine protagonists. It also explores Malayalam cinema, the film industry based in the State of Kerala, to understand how select films represent the mother as an emotionally vulnerable and transformative character. This study delves into cinematic examples that illustrate the evolving nature of matrescence, examining how South Indian filmmakers navigate the complex web of intersecting identities to present multifaceted maternal cultural narratives.
Can data visualization storytelling in energy communication campaigns ingrain farmers’ intentions to use agrivoltaic system? Evidence from global south
(2025) Raza, Syed Hassan; Ogadimma, Emenyeonu C.; Abdullah, Zulhamri; Khan, Shumaila; Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Jamil, Sadia; Malik, Aqdas; Alkhowaiter, Mohammed; Khan, Sajid Ullah
Purpose Innovative technologies pave the way to address alarming global climate issues. Among these technologies is the expansion of renewable and clean energy in farming, which aims to meet the global cheap energy demand and, at the same time, replace fossil fuels. In pursuant to this, agrivoltaic technology is an innovation that provides sustainable and low-cost production solutions to diminish the adversities associated with climate change and global warming. However, farmers from developing nations remain unacquainted or unenthusiastic about adopting such sustainable technologies. Therefore, in response to these key challenges related to climate change, this study aims to provide the utility of communication resources to inspire climate-friendly behaviors among farmers. Design/methodology/approach This study used a cross-sectional field survey method for data collection from 992 farmers. Findings The results verified that using data visualization storytelling in communication campaigns could significantly enhance farmers’ public understanding of adopting renewable technologies. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, results highlighted the importance of communication strategies in a downward spiral of ongoing challenges of optimal climate protection, counteracting rebound effects and reducing carbon emissions. Practical implications The novel contribution of this research by examining the data visualization storytelling in climate and energy communication campaigns paved the way for social marketers to develop a straightforward and user-friendly platform for implementing innovative renewable technologies. Originality/value This research underpinned a novel approach that remains understudied to understand how data visualization storytelling supports renewable technology adoption. Furthermore, it addressed the timely call for research on how data visualization storytelling can assist in achieving UNSD goals 12 and 13 by promoting renewable technologies among the farmers from the neglected area of the Global South.
Representing Anthropocene trauma: disaster narratives of the Bhopal gas tragedy in Indian cinema
(2025) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Lim, Yiru; Lye, Kit Ying
This chapter addresses the evolving genre of disaster adaptations as engaging spectacles of popular cinema. It contextualizes South Asian disasters in the Anthropocene and examines how the representation of trauma and violence defines the notion of disaster through which cinematic interventions blend fiction and reality. This study examines the infamous Bhopal gas tragedy in India in 1984, one of the worst industrial disasters in the world, as a cinematic text representing the cultural, environmental, and historical dimensions of the regional spaces in shaping the perception of an Anthropogenic disaster. It explores whether such adaptations are effective in educating the masses about the problems associated with environmental disasters that are imminent threats to the future.
Indian television and the rise of the local: televised realities of localized sociocultural experience
(2023) Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Suresh, Adith K.; Reza, S. M. Shameem; Roy, Ratan Kumar
This chapter explores the idea that the influence of television on the localized public provides new pathways for the 'local' to emerge out of traditional contexts to new grounds of modernity. The visibility of the localized subjects on the television screen and their individual participation in popular programmes distinguishes the television public from earlier forms of interactions in the form of socialization and collective viewing. The current chapter critically approaches the notion of 'localized sociocultural experience' through the analysis of "televised realities" on Indian television. It argues that Indian reality television thrives on the emotional revenue of middle-class aspirations and the commodification of local poverty culture.

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