Kerala cuisine is known for its use of:

This has allowed for niche cultural storytelling. Recent films like Puzhu (2022) explore casteism within the upper-caste Namboodiri and Nair communities with unflinching honesty—a topic once considered taboo in mainstream media. Nayattu (2021) showed how the police state manipulates caste hierarchy to scapegoat low-level officers.

The 1988 film Vaishali is often cited as featuring one of the first major lip-lock scenes in the industry, accepted by audiences because it was integrated into the classical, poetic narrative by director Bharathan.