Embodied Labor and Taste: Analyzing the Parotta in Thalaivan Thalaivi Through Bourdieu

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Parotta; Cultural Capital; Bourdieu; Thalaivan Thalaivi; Food; Class

Abstract

A plate of food on screen is never just a mere source of sustenance. It represents labor, hard work and the numerous struggles embedded within systems of class, cultural identity and production. The cinematic representation of food, thus becomes a marker of class, labor and culture thereby transcending its position as just a marker of nourishment and health. Thalaivan Thalaivi (2025), a Tamil film directed by Pandiraj, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Nithya Menon, situates the parotta, an Indian flatbread made with maida or wheat and served hot with serving of salna, a spicy and flavourful gravy with meat added to it. Parotta becomes a central symbol of Tamil working-class cuisine in the film. The film follows Aagasaveeran, a skilled parotta maker who runs a hotel with his family. It follows how food serves as a bridge that brings Aagasaveeran closer to Perarasi in the initial stage of their relationship, despite Perarasi being from a more privileged background. Through the protagonists, the film explores how shared food experiences blurs rigid class hierarchies. This paper will explore the parotta through Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of cultural capital, habitus and taste as proposed by him in his renowned works The Forms of Capital (1985), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Distinction of Taste (1984) and Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977). The parotta, central to the film, is an embodiment of embodied cultural capital in the way it is skillfully folded through multiple layers, an inherited skill. The making of parotta and its consumption by a select group of people is a habitus, a representation of the life of the Tamil-working class. Taste becomes a bridger of contrasting social classes between Aagasaveeran and Perarasi. Parotta becomes a culinary artefact connecting across social divides illustrating how even the simplest of food items carry layered meanings. This study will demonstrate how even ordinary acts of cooking and consumption are ingrained with deeper meanings revealing class structures while contributing to discussions in food studies and film studies.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - P. Jane Evangelin Shruthy
AU  - D. Annie Vimala
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
TI  - Embodied Labor and Taste: Analyzing the Parotta in Thalaivan Thalaivi Through Bourdieu
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Emerging Food Studies: Intersections of Culture, Science and Sustainability (ICEFS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 225
EP  - 232
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-583-6_21
ID  - Shruthy2026
ER  -