COMPARING TRANSGENDER PORTRAYALS IN ART AND COMMERCIAL TAMIL FILMS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

Transgender representation in Tamil cinema has historically oscillated between visibility and marginalization,
often reinforcing stereotypes rather than promoting social inclusion. The study undertakes a comparative content
analysis of transgender portrayals in selected art and commercial Tamil films to trace evolving patterns of
representation and their ideological underpinnings. While commercial cinema often constrains such characters
within comic, villainous, or sensational tropes, Tamil art films increasingly foreground emotion, subjectivity,
and social critique, signalling a shifting cinematic and cultural landscape. The main objective of the study is to
analyse the narrative roles, visual construction, and character functions of transgender figures in selected art and
commercial Tamil films. The study Grounded with representation theory and queer theory, with attention to
intersectionality, The research analyses five purposively selected films. Each film is examined across six
dimensions: narrative position, motivation and backstory, screen time, visual presentation, dialogue, and
thematic resolution. The analysis treats films as cultural texts that encode social meanings about gender
nonconformity and reflect industrial, aesthetic, and ideological divides between art and commercial cinema.
Findings reveal that art films position transgender characters more centrally, construct empathetic backstories,
and employ realist visual strategies that enable audience identification. The study concludes that Tamil art
cinema offers a more progressive framework for representing transgender identities, challenging
heteronormative assumptions and aligning with emerging discourses on rights and dignity. Commercial Tamil
films, however, continue to reproduce restrictive stereotypes and superficial portrayals