The tragedy of the Gulf worker (the loneliness, the visa slavery, the sexual frustration) became a staple of the 90s "realistic" wave. More recently, Take Off (2017) transformed this economic reality into a geopolitical thriller, rescuing Malayali nurses from the clutches of ISIS. The film worked not because of its action, but because every Malayali in the audience knows a nurse, a driver, or an engineer who works in that hostile, lucrative desert.
Directors like Lijo Jose Pellissery, Dileesh Pothan, and Mahesh Narayanan stripped away remaining commercial melodramas. The tragedy of the Gulf worker (the loneliness,