1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Visual Communication, The American College (Autonomous), Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
2PG Student, Dept. of Communication, MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
3UG Student, Dept. of Visual Communication, The American College (Autonomous), Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Films in India have always been portraying man as the hero and also in the lead and the woman in secondary role. Women are shown as characters dependent on man for economic, emotional and other needs. It has been 100 years of Indian cinema and yet portrayal of women is still a concern as women centric films are almost negligible in number. Last few years have seen a few woman centric films in Hindi film industry-Queen, Thappad, Kahaani, Pink to name a few. These films also achieved critical and commercial success. In this study, the role of the women in Tamil films will be analyzed, films which are women centric and released exclusively on the OTT Platform-Amazon Prime during the lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The two films-Penguin and Ponmagal Vandhal have female protagonists and the story revolves around them. The study will highlight the shift in the Tamil films which has been primarily male dominated and theme of hyper masculinity to a more female oriented/protagonist approach. The results shed light on the powerful portrayal of the films.
Women centric films, Patriarchy, Women empowerment, Women Protagonist, Tamil Films, OTT
