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@article{189017,
        author = {John Paul J and Dr. Joseph Mathew},
        title = {Sacred Groves and Sinless Sex: Eco-Theological Intimacy and Gendered Representation in Malayalam Cinema},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {7},
        pages = {4472-4481},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=189017},
        abstract = {The study examines the cinematic representation of eco-theological spaces and ritualised intimacy in Malayalam cinema through an intersectional, feminist, and postcolonial lens. Situating its inquiry within the historical contexts of colonial modernity, indigenous belief systems, and ecological spirituality, the paper explores how sacred landscapes—particularly groves, forests, and ritual sites—are mobilised to frame desire, corporeality, and gendered embodiment. While indigenous spiritual systems historically integrated sexuality, ecology, and ritual practice, colonial moral frameworks recast these expressions as primitive, excessive, or dangerous. Malayalam cinema, shaped by these inherited epistemologies, frequently reproduces such binaries through its visual and narrative strategies.Through close textual and visual analysis of selected films—Gandharvakshethram (1972), Rathinirvedam (1978), Adharvam (1989), Anandabhadram (2005), and Chayilyam (2012)—the study traces how eco-theological spaces are alternately romanticised, eroticised, and pathologised. These films often construct sacred ecological sites as liminal zones that sanction “forbidden” intimacy, producing what may be termed a cinematic grammar of “sinless sex.” However, such representations frequently reinforce patriarchal and colonial hierarchies by marginalising female agency, exoticising tribal bodies, and positioning indigenous rituals as threats requiring purification or rescue by modern, masculine protagonists.},
        keywords = {Eco-theology, Malayalam cinema, Indigenous ritual, Gender and intimacy.},
        month = {December},
        }