When someone unintentionally introduces herself as ‘Betrayed Beauty’, criticism of the highest degree is almost a given. Janhvi Kapoor’s ‘Thekkapetta Sundari’ – her Malayali character in the upcoming Hindi film Param Sundari – received, quite unsurprisingly, a lot of brickbats. Memes, trolls, and videos filled the pages of Param Sundari within a week of the trailer launch.
What the actor or the makers of the film possibly did not realise is that the name Thekapetta Sundari translates to ‘betrayed beauty’ in Malayalam slang. Or else, she must have mispronounced a more likely family name ‘Thekkepaatil’ when she rattled off four names in succession—Thekkapetta Sundari Damodaran Pillai.
‘Thekkuka’, which literally means ‘to iron’, evolved in slang to convey ‘betrayal’. Used mostly by men on women who break up with them, the word adopted a misogynistic flavour in the last decade. Songs were made about the women who ‘thekkal’ – “Thechille Penne” in the Fahadh Faasil film Role Models being the most ridiculous example of the trend. James, the vocalist of the band Thakara would explain before singing their track “Podi Penne” about a cheating girl that this did not mean that only women ‘thekkal’, but everyone did.
Malayalis, infamous for their wry sense of humour and cyber attacks on anything offensive, had a field day with Param Sundari. That Janhvi played a Malayali when she could hardly pronounce the name right, invited a lot of scorn and inevitable comparisons to other badly-written Malayali characters. Shalini Unnikrishnan of The Kerala Story is still fresh on everyone’s mind with the movie, much criticised for its unflattering portrayal of the state, winning the National Award this year. Both Shalini and Sundari seemed like sad caricatures of Malayali women, stereotypes that offended all senses.
Instagram celebrity and singer Pavithra Menon had posted a short video critiquing Sundari’s Malayalam, which, after going viral over the internet, was removed from her page without her consent. She shared the notice from Instagram and wrote, “Happy Independence Day to everyone who has a voice”. Pavithra further asked in a video why filmmakers could not cast a Malayali to play a Malayali. She also reminded them that Malayalis don’t just wear jasmine flowers on their hair and do Mohiniyattam all the time.
The broken Malayalam of Sundari also brought memories of Deepika Padukone’s Tamil character in Chennai Express—equally flawed and stereotypical. Alia Bhatt also received some flak for her Tamil character in 2 States.
Janhvi’s flawed Malayalam might have tasted more bitter because of the many memorable characters her late mother and adored actor Sridevi had left behind in Tamil and Malayalam cinema. Sridevi’s lead role as a child actor in Poombatta (1971) is still one of the most cherished among Malayalis.
Malayalis were also not kind when Rajnikanth and Manju Warrier danced to “Manasilayo”, a song in Vettaiyan, which came with terribly written Malayalam lyrics.
They simply spare no one, including the Prime Minister when Narendra Modi wished Malayalis a Happy Onam, and mispronounced varsham (year) as visham (poison).