Guest Post | Is The Guild System Returning Through Malayalam Cinema?

Cinematters’ note: This Guest post is by  P.S.Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Remesh Chandran blogs at  SAHYADRI BOOKS  and you can mail him at sahyadribooksremesh@gmail.com.

In the middle ages, an experienced and specialized worker could work and make his living only if he joined the respective Guild. Painting, drawing, sculpting, moulding, gold-working, all were controlled by the respective guilds. The guild master or the foreman of that particular guild would be the omnipotent in that particular field of human activity. Plumbers, painters, artists, brick-builders, kiln-workers, goat-herders all had their own guilds. The powers of these guilds were such that they controlled the respective industry, enterprise or establishment as the case may be. The guild master and foreman could do with or do without any worker. People and their families lost their lives or living, according to the whims and fancies of these guild masters.