The Mobile Identities: Crises of Mobility Portrayed in the Malayalam Film Pathemari

Abstract

The present paper entitled The Mobile Identities attempts to examine the aftermath of migration especially from south India to gulf countries as portrayed in the film Pathemari directed by Salim Ahmed. He had already thrived in delineating the intricacies and conflicts in the lives of ordinary human beings through his previous award winning projects such as Abu, Son of Adam and Kujanathantekada. Pathemari also can be regarded as a similar attempt to project the stark realities of life faced by people during a particular time in history in particular and of present times in general. The paper attempts to analyze the life and character of the protagonist Narayan ranging from childhood to death by considering the different aspects of his livelihood such as family ties broken relationships, his unrelenting affection for his native place and the nature of treatment received from his homeland. The major objective of the study is to scrutinize how much the film succeeded to convey the undesirable effects of being driven from one’s own culture and community such as identity crisis, the feeling of alienation and the sense of disinheritance. Thus this study can be described as an endeavor to think over the various effects of kinesis; both individually and socially.