An Analysis on the Portrayal of Male Protagonist in Tamil Films

Tamil cinema is influenced by the actors staging their roles and taking a stand in society. The characters that the actors portray in their films right from the ages of MGR to Kamal Hassan and to Vijay Sethupathi in the recent times and their portrayal of characters as ‘men' in their movies has a lot to say about the gender identities in the society. The research aims to study and understand how men are showed and portrayed in Tamil films because of the importance of cinema that has been inbred so deeply into the hearts of the people right from the old ages and how cinema is used as a tool to represent and portray societal values. Content analysis has been used to analyze the Tamil movies corresponding to the consumption of gender identities, male dominance, masculinity and their gender roles in the cinema through which they are portrayed. The paper talks about the shift in the portrayal of men in the Tamil cinema over time and a positive approach towards the conclusion.