The first Malayalam film, "Bali" (1919), was a silent movie directed by A. D. Govanan. However, it was not until the 1950s that the industry gained momentum with films like "Nirmala" (1953) and "Balanaga" (1957). These early films laid the foundation for the socially conscious cinema that would become a hallmark of Malayalam filmmaking.

In Kumbalangi Nights , the backwater village is not a tourist brochure; it is a moody, claustrophobic, and deeply emotional ecosystem that mirrors the fractured lives of the four brothers. In Joji , the sprawling, decaying rubber plantation becomes a visual metaphor for a toxic patriarchal structure rotting from the inside.