Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part H (2025)

The Malayalam film industry has grown into a distinguished field in Indian cinema. Moreover, Molly Wood has carved a niche for itself through the settings, filmmaking techniques, characterization, and realistic features. The aesthetics of nature and its fineness have become feathers to the cap. Following the same legacy Kishkindha Kaandam (2024) movie, directed by Dinjith Ayyathan and produced by Joby George Thadathil, holds an indispensable position. Since the movie has left a different impact on the mind of the researcher, reader-response criticism is used to examine this movie in a transformative way. Reader-response criticism is not the analysis of a literary text but the analysis of the response of readers to the text. The reader plays a major role in interpreting the meaning of a text. Meaning inheres not in the text but in the reader. The reader does not merely consume the texts passively; instead, they are actively involved in constructing a meaning out of it. On the whole, this paper sheds light upon the Malayalam movie Kishkindha Kaandam from the perspectives of reader-response criticism.