Theppu, or dumping, is an important part of modern Malayali dating culture. The stereotypical narrative is of two people dating in college, and then the woman dumping the man to marry someone who is perhaps richer, older, from the same community, etc. Perhaps an NRI with a silk lungi and not so much a spot of baldness as a spot of hair. Such real-life experiences have inspired many a volcanic eruption of male angst and misogyny. It can happen to women, too, of course. But you wouldn’t expect the female lead of a Bollywood film to be named Thekkappetta Sundari (Dumped Beauty).
The name of Janhvi Kapoor’s character in the upcoming Hindi film Param Sundari has opened the floodgates of Malayali trolldom. It makes “Shalini Onnikrishnan from Trivandrapuram” (The Kerala Story, 2023) sound positively authentic. To be fair, the name might not be intended as Thekkappetta and could be a distortion of some family name, but that’s exactly what it sounds like when Kapoor is heard saying it in a trailer. There are a couple of other gems in that trailer, too: The Dumped Beauty is lecturing some north Indians about not conflating the different southern states and their film superstars, and, very confidently, refers to “Malyalam” — exactly how the average north Indian says it. FYI, there should be a short ‘a’ before the ‘y’. The lines in “Malyalam” itself are incomprehensible — she allegedly calls someone mannunni (for Hindi speakers, it’s roughly the equivalent of pappu) but I couldn’t make it out.
Intrepid keyboard warriors have also dissected the rest of the female lead’s name. One does come across the occasional Sundaran or Sundaresan in real life, but the distaff counterpart, Sundari, is rare, perhaps unheard of today. The plausibility of her father being named Damodaram Pillai as opposed to Damodaran Pillai has also been questioned. On this, a note of dissent: Tamil names like Meenakshisundaram Pillai do exist. Perhaps the fellow in question is a Tamil Pillai from south Travancore. In any case, whoever came up with these names certainly didn’t put this much thought into it, so let’s move on.
The trailer also includes the usual mélange of Kerala visuals: Kalarippayattu, Mohiniyattam, backwaters, boat race, blah blah blah. Clearly, this is a faraway, exotic land of scenic beauty, steeped in classical arts and martial traditions. It reminded me of the Tamil song ‘Chennai Senthamizh’ in M. Kumaran Son of Mahalakshmi (2004) — but at least that also associated some interesting things with Kerala such as plantains (“nenthiram pazhame neymeni nadiye…”).
Twelve years after Chennai Express (2013), some are hopping aboard the outrage train again, frustrated by the stereotyped representation of south Indians in Hindi cinema. But there’s not much point getting so worked up by the trailer of a film that you’ll probably never watch and which isn’t intended for you. The Malayali troll army’s response is probably healthier and more proportionate: Just point and laugh. It’s so stupid it’s funny.
If the male lead of Param Sundari is a Param Theppist (Supreme Dumper), my advice to Thekkappetta Sundari would be, “Avan vendedi (Girl, you don’t need him).” Perhaps a deeper point could be made about the socio-cultural — oh, who am I kidding? The only thing to say is this: Unintentional comedy is the best comedy.
rohan.manoj@expressindia.com
