Constituting migrant Muslims of Kerala: Family, sexuality and visual culture

In mainstream Malayalam films, the portrayal of Muslims and their lifestyles has a significant and contemporary parallel in Kerala’s home video films. Home videos, popular since 2000, especially in northern Kerala, continue to attract a large audience. The Malabar region was the focal point of twentieth-century migration to the Gulf. Therefore, it is unexpected that the cultural influence of home video films has not been extensively studied in Kerala, particularly within the Muslim community. Central to the narratives are the social and ideological issues affecting Kerala’s Muslim residents and migrants. Therefore, understanding how identities form among Gulf migrants requires studying cultural expatriation in spatio-temporal settings, across different times and places. This article examines how home video films interrogate sociocultural Muslim norms of sexuality and religion through the silver screen.