Like scores of Malayalees, I have a problem with Prithviraj Sukumaran. My concern doesn’t lie with his being upfront (or ‘bold’ as Keralites love to term this kind of behaviour) in his interviews. In fact, I think a lot of the things he says make sense and initially, it was a breath of fresh air to have an A-leaguer speak his mind without caring for diplomacy.
My problem lies with the fact that the man is sometimes full of contradictions. The biggest example of this is that he has, time and again, ridiculed the superstar phenomenon in Indian cinema and has gone on record to say that he is ‘part of a movement’ that is trying to do away with superstardom.
All this after he has done movies like Pokkiri Raja, Puthiya Mukham and Thanthonni, which have him display an unreal sense of bravado, run around trees in foreign locations and beat up a bunch of goons single-handedly. These are the very factors that catapulted Mohanlal to superstardom (well, maybe not running around trees) and clearly, they have put Prithviraj on the same track.
Coming back to his interviews, I have often thought of him as being rather silly for answering the same questions over all these years. No doubt the interviewers are TRP-crazy and ask him these controversial questions, but his answers are now super-predictable. He rants about how Mohanlal’s time in the industry should be up by now (indirectly, of course) and about how his last name only got him so far as his first film. Interviewers, think of new questions.
Prithviraj, give your fans something new in each interview!
That’s as far as his appearances on Malayalam TV go. When I watched him as a guest on a Hindi channel’s reality show, I couldn’t help but compare his demeanour on it to the nonchalance he shows his Malayalam viewers for here was this man who was so polite and saying exactly what he was expected to say, with no narcissistic undertones.
He told the contestants that they were fantastic and asked one of the judges (a former Hindi movie sensation) to dance with him to one of her most popular songs and with a charming smile added, “You have no idea how many posters of yours I have had on my hostel room’s walls!”
Then, I saw him play second fiddle to Arjun Kapoor, who is a far less experienced actor than him and I also noticed, as anyone would have, that he was struggling with his Hindi. Gradually, I realised that I was feeling something new towards this man. What was it? Was it sympathy, an aiyyo paavam sentiment of sorts? There was that, but there was something else too. Suddenly, it hit me. I was overcome by a protective instinct towards this person I have never met or spoken to.
I found it ridiculous that he had to cower in the shadows of someone who is only as popular as he is in the Hindi film world because of his lineage. Typical Bollywood clannishness! I also felt that he needn’t have been apologetic for his heavy Malayalam accent. With typical south Indian arrogance, I thought, “He shouldn’t even have spoken in Hindi on a public platform if he isn’t comfortable with the language.”
At some point on the show, he danced to Dreamum Wakeupum, that hideous song from his hideous first outing in Hindi films and as I watched, I was back to contrasting this behaviour to one of his stoic appearances on Idea Star Singer. This guy spoke only as much as required on Asianet and briefly congratulated the contestants on their performances, which he evidently didn’t watch regularly.
But on the Hindi reality show, he declared that he had a favourite, like he’d been following the programme regularly. So now, I was torn between thinking he was a pretentious jerk on one hand and feeling sorry for how much he had to compromise on his mighty principles to fit into the Mumbai crowd on the other.
But then, along came Tejabhai and Family on my television screen and my nose was back to crinkling in disgust and looking down upon him and the ‘part of a movement’ line resounded in my head. But I also know that when his next Hindi film releases and he dances and speaks in heavily accented Hindi on national television, I will feel a deep sense of kinship with him and curse Bollywood for being so obsessed with legacy and for sending actors to promote their films unashamedly on reality shows.
I am usually all for people knowing different languages and wonder why Tamil actors who act in Malayalam films don’t bother with learning the language. For all my practicality, when I see Prithviraj, who has opted to act in Hindi films and therefore should learn the language, struggling to speak good Hindi, I will resent Hindi filmdom for constantly reminding south Indian stars that they are, well, south Indian.
Parvati Mohan is a Hyderabad based media professional.
