: The 1950s saw a shift toward neo-realism with films like Newspaper Boy (1955), which was influenced by Italian cinema and depicted the struggles of extreme poverty.
Throughout the 1990s, the industry produced what critics call the "family melodrama"—films like Godfather (1991), Sargam (1995), and Azhakiya Ravanan (1996). These films valorized the amma (mother) while simultaneously policing the daughter’s sexuality. The cultural archetype of the "Kerala woman"—educated, employed, but chaste—was reinforced constantly. : The 1950s saw a shift toward neo-realism