Avoiding affection in Kaathal—The Core: homosexuality sanitized for family audiences

Kaathal—The Core (2023) is the first mainstream Malayalam film that addresses the theme of male homosexuality, released after the Supreme Court verdict of 2018 that decriminalized homosexuality in India. The film narrates the disruptions that happen in the lives of male homosexual partners, Mathew and Thankan, following the forced disclosure of their non-normative sexuality. Although the film can be seen as a progressive attempt at placing homosexual characters at the centre of the narrative, it conveniently sidesteps a serious engagement with their experiences shaped by other intersecting identities such as class and religion. In short, the film tends to homogenise homosexual identity, while disregarding the role of other dimensions of their identities, which weakens the progressive claims of the film. Even though the film is hailed for representing a homosexual relationship, several instances can be cited where the film attempts to appease a heteronormative society which constitutes the majority of the Malayali audience. The paper argues that, contrary to the claim of a gay-centred narrative, the film Kaathal—The Core caters to the sensibilities of the predominantly heteronormative Malayali family audience.