Films often shatter the, once prevalent, idealised middle-class family image, presenting instead a more complex view of the family as a space of both comfort and tension, where women assert their agency and challenge existing power dynamics.

The inception of Malayalam cinema was marked by social consciousness. The first silent film, Vigathakumaran (1928), and the first talkie, Balan (1938), set the stage for an industry that would consistently engage with societal issues. The Literary Wave

In the 1950s and 1960s, the industry moved away from mythological melodramas. It embraced literary adaptations and social realism instead.