Directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and G. Aravindan, pioneers of the parallel cinema movement in the 1970s and 80s, refused the postcard. They used the landscape as a character of struggle. In Elippathayam (The Rat Trap, 1981), the decaying feudal manor overgrown with weeds is not just a backdrop; it is the psychological state of a crumbling Nair landlord. In Vanaprastham (1999), the Kathakali performance space becomes a battleground for caste and forbidden love.