Malayalam softcore pornography

Malayalam softcore pornography
Years activec. 1985 – c. 2005
LocationIndia
Major figuresAbhilasha (actress)
Silk Smitha
Shakeela
Reshma (B-grade actress)
P. Chandrakumar
InfluencesAdipapam
Kinnara Thumbikal

Malayalam softcore pornography was a popular genre of softcore pornography produced in the Indian state of Kerala in the Malayalam language. Popularly known as Mallu porn films or B-grade films, they are mostly recognised as low-quality films with fairly low budgets. They emerged alongside mainstream Malayalam cinema of Kerala in the 1980s.

Adipapam (1988) is regarded as the first successful Malayalam film with softcore nudity, and it is considered to have started the trend of softcore films in Malayalam.[1] Despite facing a temporary decline in the 1990s, the genre's popularity grew after the successful release of Kinnara Thumbikal (2000), which starred Shakeela. This period was termed the Shakeela tharangam (Shakeela wave). There is a general consensus that the films, which critics called vulgar and crude, were the backbone of the Malayalam film industry during its worst period. In 2001, around 64% of the total films produced in Malayalam were of the soft porn variety.[2] Influenced by the rise of the internet in India, the genre then began to decline.[3]

While the films have sexually provocative themes and some nudity, many film historians do not consider them to be blatantly explicit or simply pornographic.[4] To evade the Central Board of Film Certification, certain scenes were shot separately and not shown to the board. Many theatre owners and distributors illegally inserted nudity from foreign films or hardcore pornography into the films.[5]

  1. ^ "Mudhal Paavam". The Indian Express. 9 December 1988. p. 5. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  2. ^ Mini, Darshana Sreedhar (2016). "The Spectral Duration of Malayalam Soft-porn: Disappearance, Desire, and Haunting". BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies. 7 (2): 127–150. doi:10.1177/0974927616667971. ISSN 0974-9276. S2CID 193768554. Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  3. ^ Menon, Vishal (16 May 2020). "Shakeela, Superstardom And A Softporn Wave That Threatened The Survival Of Malayalam Cinema". www.filmcompanion.in. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
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