Muhammed Afzal P
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Cinemas of India
- Intellectual and cultural history of the Left in India
- Literary and cultural radicalism in South India
- Media and politics
- Contemporary Indian popular culture
Biography
Afzal received his doctoral degree in Cultural Studies from The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad (2018). His dissertation titled “Cinema, Politics and Historical Consciousness: The Left and the Production of a Modern Subjectivity in Kerala, 1950s-1980” explored the Left’s engagement with culture in Kerala.
Prior to joining Azim Premji University in July 2023, he worked as an Assistant Professor (May 2019 – June 2023) in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani (BITS Pilani) and as a guest faculty (July 2017 – April 2019) at the Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL), University of Hyderabad. He has also worked as an Assistant Editor with Viva Books, New Delhi (2011−12).
Afzal has been teaching courses in Literary and Cultural Studies. His long-term research is concerned with the cultural forms and aesthetic practices of the Left in Kerala. His other research interests include Malayalam Cinema, Literary and Cultural Radicalism in Kerala, Digital Culture and Youth Subjectivities, and Mediatization and Political Stardom in Contemporary Kerala.
Courses
Reading the City: Language, Media, Culture, and Bangalore
Develops new perspectives on the city they have been studying and living in
Word, Sound, Image
Find out how literature can go beyond the written word and image and sound can have meaning too.
Contemporary India Through Literary and Cultural Texts
Discover the meaning of the term “contemporary” in terms of literary and cultural texts from India and how they respond to the time period they emerged in.
Drama as Text and Performance
Learn how drama evolved, and find out more about the complex relationship between the written word and its performance.
An Introduction to Literature
This is a gateway course that conveys the excitement of doing close reading and literary analysis. It also looks at different genres and the interaction between the student and literary text, and the inevitability of multiple meanings and perspectives.
Publications
Journal articles
- Rauniyar, Chandni & Afzal, P.M. (2025). From Spectacle to Subtlety: Gender, Violence, and Female Subjectivity in Contemporary Hindi Cinema. South Asian Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2025.2602252
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). Melancholic vision and utopian imagination: Amma Ariyan and Left-wing culture in Kerala in the 1970s. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13(4), 1 – 10. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.42
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). Melodrama, ascetic modality, and Communist self-fashioning: Mukhamukham and the Communist Hero in Malayalam cinema. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 13(1), 1 – 11. https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v13n1.30
- Afzal, P.M. (2021). Imagining the Malayali Nation: Early Malayalam Cinema and the Making of a Modern Malayali Identity. Dialogist: International Journal of Literary Studies and Interdisciplinary Research 1(1), 4 – 14. http://journal.kannuruniversity.ac.in/Dialogist/common/viewarticle/11
- Afzal, P.M. (2018). Cinema and Politics in Kerala: The Mukhamukham Controversy. Communication & Journalism Research 7(2), 37 – 44. https://cjrjournal.in/Uploads/Files/CJR18D_5.%20Muhammed%20Afzal.pdf
- Afzal, P.M. (2017). Popular Cinema and the (Re)construction of the Left Popular in Kerala. Communication & Journalism Research 6(1), 145 – 153. https://cjrjournal.in/Uploads/Files/CJR17J_12.%20Muhamed.pdf
Book chapters
- Afzal, P. M. (Forthcoming). The Formation of Kerala as a Linguistic State. In People’s Linguistic Survey of India Volume 32: Language Movements. Orient BlackSwan
- Afzal, P. M. (Forthcoming). The Emergence of Malayalam. In People’s Linguistic Survey of India Volume 32: Emergence of the Scheduled Languages. Orient Blackswan.
- Afzal, P. M. (2022). Language as a site of National-Popular: The Left and the production of a modern Malayali identity. The Worlds in the Word: 200th Year of Printing in Malayalam (pp. 368 – 385). National Book Stall/Benjamin Bailey Foundation.
Conference proceedings
- Afzal, P. M. (2021). ‘We are Doing Better’: Local Pride, Collective Identity, and the Question of Populism in Kerala. In L. Horsmanheimo, & L.E. Sibinescu (Eds.), Reflections on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation: HEPP2 Conference Proceedings. University of Helsinki. http://hdl.handle.net/10138/339779
Encyclopaedia entries
- Afzal, P. M. (2023). K.A. Abbas. In M. Jaidka & T. N. Dhar (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Writing in English. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Encyclopedia-of-Indian-Writing-in-English/Jaidka-Dhar/p/book/9781032245577.
- Afzal, P. M. (2023). O.V. Vijayan. In M. Jaidka & T. N. Dhar (Eds.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Writing in English. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Encyclopedia-of-Indian-Writing-in-English/Jaidka-Dhar/p/book/9781032245577
Newspaper article
- Afzal, P. M. (2017, August 13). Kyaampasukalil Thurakkappedunna Puthujanaadhipathya Idangal (University Campuses as New Democratic Spaces). SuprabhathamDaily [Malayalam]
Magazine articles
- Afzal, P. M. (2014, March 26). Vignettes of defiance – II. Himal Southasian. https://www.himalmag.com/vignettes-defiance-ii/
- Afzal, P. M. (2014, March 24). Vignettes of defiance – I. Himal Southasian. https://www.himalmag.com/gifts-people/
Translations
- Malayalam translation of “Vegetarians Only”, a Telugu short story by Sky Baba in Chandrika Weekly, 26 April 2014.
- Vijayakrishnan’s essay on the film Mukhamukham “Jeernathayude Saakshaathkaaram”, into English as “Realizing Decadence” for Indiancin.ma. https://indiancine.ma/documents/BOA
- Raveendran’s essay on the film Mukhamukham, “Mukhamukham: Cinemayum Vyaakhyaanavum” into English as “Mukhamukham: The Film and the Interpretations” for Indiancine.ma. https://indiancine.ma/documents/BOI
- Vijayakrishnan’s essay on the film Athithi “Varum Varum enna pratheeksha” into English as “The Anticipation born of hope” for Indiancine.ma. https://indiancine.ma/documents/BNW/