The Watchful Eye: Surveillance, Social Norms and Ethical Quandaries in Recent Malayalam Cinema

A surge in surveillance in the early twenty-first century has culminated in the now widely accepted delineation of present-day society as a “surveillance society.” This steady rise in surveillance technologies in public spaces and even at homes primarily neutered the dynamics of human interaction and behaviour. Furthermore, surveillance is a subject in film, television and social media. Subsequently, surveillance has become a core aspect of the modern-day visual culture and life more commonly. This paper aims to explore surveillance as a narrative method for examining the themes of social control, social and psychological consequences, and ethical dilemmas, particularly in recent Malayalam movies. This paper argues that Footage and Sookshmadarshini employ domestic surveillance as a critique of normalised voyeurism, exposing how ethical boundaries are blurred in the pursuit of curiosity, control, and perceived safety. Panopticon theory, Surveillance society, and other surveillance theories are used to support the statements in this paper.