COSTUME AS A CHARACTER: COMMUNICATING THROUGH COSTUME IN IYOBINTE PUSTHAKAM

Anamika  Thulasidas; Gondi Surender Dhanunjay; Shamala  Ramappa

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i1.2024.713

Authors

Anamika Thulasidas Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India
Gondi Surender Dhanunjay Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India
Shamala Ramappa Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i1.2024.713

Keywords:

Semiotic Analysis, Iyobinte Pusthakam, Visual Communication, Costume Design, Malayalam Cinema

Abstract [English]

Costumes which are the distinctive style of dressing is one of the many tools the film director has to tell the story in films. Costumes can communicate the details of a character’s personality to the audience and facilitate actors transform into new and believable personalities on the screen Brownie & Graydon (2016). Costumes give a visual impact on the film audience and more than just dressing an actor, costume design extends the main themes of the film in a subtly effective way, it can progress the character in a story without dialogue, costumes may not be memorable as dance sequences or banter but it can recreate time and space. While looking deeper into the costumes of the character it might be a surprise to explore a person’s politics, education, personality, social status, hierarchy, politics, and many more about the particular role played by the character. The need for communication is for the designers to effectively design the costumes. This article explores a Semiotic Analysis of how the costumes communicate the character development progresses in the Malayalam film “IYOBINTE PUSTHAKAM” the characters “IYOB” and “COMMUNIST MAN”. Semiotic Analysis is used to analyze the costume of the characters and gives an explanation of how costume designers design costumes in films that effectively communicate the character in films.

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Author Biographies

Anamika Thulasidas , Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India

Anamika Thulasidas holds a Master's in Mass Communication and Bachelor's in English language and literature. Her interest lies in Film script writing, Content writing. She has written scripts for short films.

Gondi Surender Dhanunjay, Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India

Gondi Surender Dhanunjay is a Ph.D. Researcher at the Department of Media and

Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India. He holds a Master's in

Journalism and Mass Communication from The English and Foreign Languages University,

Hyderabad, India. His Research interests are Film Production, Digital Communication, Mobile

Media & Media and Culture. He has earlier worked as Assistant Professor at Jain University,

Bangalore, India and GITAM University, Hyderabad, India.

Shamala Ramappa , Department of Media and Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India

Dr. Shamala Ramappa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at the Central University of Tamil Nadu. She has more than a decade of teaching experience, Formerly she was working as Transmission Executive at All India Radio (Hassan, Karnataka), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. her exposure to rural life and community development are her fortes. She also worked on many community-based participatory research projects focusing on the media's role in uplifting economically and socially marginalized groups from rural areas.

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