The 1970s saw the rise of , led by pioneers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and G. Aravindan .

The evolution of the industry is marked by distinct phases that track changing societal attitudes:

More recently, the blockbuster Kumbalangi Nights (2019) used the fishing village of Kumbalangi—often ironically called the 'model village' of India—to explore toxic masculinity and brotherhood. The stilted houses, the backwaters, and the ubiquitous Chinese fishing nets are not decorative; they function as psychological barriers for the characters trapped within them. Similarly, Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu (2019) turns a village in the Malayalam heartland into a chaotic, primal jungle. The narrow lanes, the tapioca fields, and the butcher shops are integral to the film’s thesis about unstoppable human greed. When a filmmaker shoots in Kerala, the humidity, the monsoon, and the coconut trees do more than set the mood—they dictate the behavior of the characters.