An outraged Ayyappanum Koshiyum fan’s reaction to Pawan Kalyan’s Bheemla Nayak: A sacrilege of a beloved Malayalam movie?

Ayyappanum Koshiyum is at once about the classic class struggle between haves and have-nots, and a commentary on wide-ranging social, political and even psychological issues. This movie is packed with ideas delineating the complex and rigid power structure of our society. And there are mass overtones to Biju Menon’s Ayyappan Nair. Remember the scene when Ayyappan Nair first engages in an all-out street fight after losing his uniform? Why is that scene so memorable or dare I say iconic? It’s because of the sheer simplicity of the narration and clever underplaying of the hero’s power till that point, which results in a massive payoff.

There is a moment in the trailer of Bheemla Nayak when Pawan Kalyan’s character kicks off his slippers in mid-air while charging with a lathi stick against a group of men. Is there any purpose to it? Removing the footwear on the move is sort of a ritual for Ayyappan before he engages in a no-nonsense hand-to-hand combat.

As a fan of Ayyappanum Koshiyum, when I saw the trailer of Bheemla Nayak, it looked like an entirely new movie to me. It was indistinguishable from other over-the-top action movies of Telugu cinema, where the hero is over and above the idea of law and order.

In other words, I can’t understand why the makers wanted to call Bheemla Nayak a remake of Ayyappanum Koshiyum. The trope of two egoistic men engaging in mindless battle is something that has been perfected by Telugu filmmakers over many years now. They could have put any two characters and made them fight each other till death. Why did those two men have to be Ayyappanum Koshiyum? If the makers are not adopting the underflowing commentary on masculinity and class struggle, what’s the point of calling it a remake of Ayyappanum Koshiyum?

They could have simply called it Bheemla Nayak – just another Pawan Kalyan movie.