The state’s strong trade union culture and communist parties are recurring motifs. Early films like Elipathayam (1981) by Adoor Gopalakrishnan allegorized the fall of the feudal Nair landlord class in the face of changing socio-economic tides. More recently, films like Virus (2019) and Aarkkariyam (2021) touch upon the bureaucratic and political structures unique to Kerala. The chayakada (tea shop) has become a cinematic cliché precisely because it is a real-life hub of political discourse, where ideologies are debated over a glass of sulaimani chai .