Films like Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016) spent two hours building up to a single fistfight, exploring the fragile ego of a small-town photographer. Kumbalangi Nights (2019) turned toxic masculinity on its head, set against the stunning, decaying beauty of a fishing village. The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) was a quiet hurricane—a film with no profanity, no violence, no nudity, yet it became a political bomb because it showed the daily drudgery of a Brahmin household wife wiping the floor after her husband bathes.