A peculiar problem in Prithviraj's plate :)

There is a running joke in Kerala that the famous Sardar of the eponymous Sardar jokes is giving away his crown as the South Indian King of PJs to Kerala’s rising butt of all jokes, Tintumon. So at the crowning ceremony, Tintumon proudly took the stage to receive the award and the envelope from the Sardar. And as Tintumon opened the envelope that would adjudge him as the King of Kerala Comedy, his ecstatic, elated and euphoric face turned red with indignation, irritation and raging fury after he read the contents of the envelope.

He then thundered angrily, “Who the F*** is Prithviraj?!!”

J

Rsising Malayalam Star Prithviraj is pissed that he is unwittingly becoming the star of the many sms jokes that earlier went under the garb of Sir Sardar and Tintumon. In fact, Prithviraj says there is a malicious online body that is dedicated to tarnishing his well cultivated image and “phenomenal” fan following. For the mellus out there, check this one, amongst the many (shame on you if you still haven’t J).

Yup Prithviraj is pissed.

But come to think of it, I personally think he should be proud (seriously!). I mean, its one thing to be a star but it’s totally another thing to be cult – and he is becoming cult by becoming the butt of almost all jokes forwarded in Kerala. I mean, imagine having students, professionals and aam aadmi peoples laughing and forwarding Prithviraj jokes to their friends and families and that is really, really something. And Prithviraj is turning into a different type of celebrity – something that none of the other big stars of Mollywood could ever manage. Sure earlier Sreeshanth, Tharoor and Santhosh Pandit seemed to have gone the same route but eventually lost out somewhere along the line (Respect to the Pandit btw!).

So if you think this post is about Prithviraj, well it’s not. At least, not entirely.

This post is about a good buddy of mine named Chaandy. Chaandy is the guy, who in my mind is the real humor king. I mean, this guy actually takes time off his busy (ya rite! J) schedule to enjoy and crack jokes. Chaandy and I studied together and we keep in touch on and off and the latest is that he’s just became a father last week. Some instances of Chaandy –ism are:

· Chaandy called me up last week and asked me if I had a copy of Rujutta Diwekar’s fitness book. I asked him why the hell did he wake me up in the middle of the friggin’ night for some God damn book and he said, “Da, I’ve just become a father…. ”. My sleepy tone suddenly changed to exhilaration and happiness and congratulated him profusely for the next five minutes of the call. After a while into our conversation about his new found fatherhood, it suddenly occurred to me that he had started the call asking me for a book. I asked him, “Dude, why did you ask me for that book when you had such important news?”

He replied, “Macha, I’m now the father of a girl. I have to now make sure I stay trim and smart and not put on any unnecessary weight.”

I failed to see the connection and asked him in stark puzzlement, “Dude, I don’t see the relation.”

He replied matter-of-factedly, “Arre, ullu ke patte, haven’t you seen ‘Nishabd’?”

· A common friend of Chaandy and mine named Amit got married for a second time. Amit did not call Chaandy for his first marriage, which unfortunately lasted only a few months. For Amit’s second marriage, again he did not call Chaandy. Since I was boasting to Chaandy that I had got invitations to both marriages, Chaandy called up Amit in front of me and jovially said, “Amithey, I heard you’re getting married again. You didn’t call me for the first one and I’m ok with that. Now you didn’t call me for the second one either. It’s still ok. I just wanted to tell that whatever happens, for your third one, I’ll definitely be there for it even if you don’t call me!!”

Amit never talked to us again. Ever.

· This happened in college. The Army was recruiting people from our college and it was mandatory that we apply for it and Chaandy was reluctantly put into the list of applicants. He was having a stress interview with a big mustached Singh, who was some big shot Brigadier who was stationed out in the North East. The Brigadier Singh asked Chaandy a supposedly very difficult question in his booming voice, peppered liberally with Sindhi Hindi. His stress question to Chaandy was “You’re posted in Ladakh and you see three of your fellow mates raping a village belle. If you complain, your whole unit will be court marshaled and you will lose your job and your entire family depends on only your salary; but if you do not complain, you are not a fit human being as you are abetting a heinous crime and one’s morality quotient is of utmost importance in the army. Tell me Mr. Chaandy, what would you do in that situation? ”

Contrary to the Brigadier’s expectation, Chaandy showed no signs of being stressed out – he casually replied, “Sir, three plus one is four”

The Brigadier Singh was confused and enquired in his baritone voice, “Kya bola? Mujhe kuch samajha nahi….”

Chaandy replied with a beaming smile, “Sir, I also rape rape.. wo teen aur ek main; three plus one is four!”………….

People claim that it was the last time the Brigadier Singh ever came to our college.

People who know Chaandy simbly love him for his jokes and people who are the butt of his jokes hate him profusely. But me thinks that Chaandy is just honest – he’s known to call a spade a spade. However, unlike a lot of other such honest Rams who burn fingers with their honesty, Chaandy sugar coats his honesty with outrageous humor, and that is what turns him into the ‘cool doodh’ that he is. Of course, his honesty and his humor have definitely alienated people - many friends have turned haters and vice versa - but he will always be remembered as the guy who said things as they were. And more than anything else, it’s fun to be with him cos there’s never a dull moment when he’s around.

And the coolest part is this - of late, I’ve noticed that due to his irreverent and hilarious jokes, Chaandy is now slowly turning into something cult within our circles. Stories of Chaandy-isms keep flying across and every reunion party is never complete without a mention of new instances of Chaandy-isms– in fact, in our recent reunion, many more zany stories were attributed to him - of course, most of them are totally untrue but nevertheless outrageous, but the point is that he is being talked about even in his absence, thus adding to his burgeoning legend. And in spite of all these stories, there exists an inherent likeness for him.

So here’s my take on this – this may not work for single instances but I think that the more people propagate bad about you, yes, in the initial stages it may be totally unflattering to you but with time, I think it’s what kind of person you are deep down that comes out to the fore front of such news. And after that happens, the more people talk ill about you, it will only fan and spread your internal worth. And I always like to believe that everybody is intrinsically good, in spite of the shades of grey that layer our basic personality.

Examples? Oh yes –

• People may remember that a few years back, the media had proclaimed that Salman Khan was a terrible human being – he was written off as a drunkard, a murderer, a wayward soul – and the Khan’s then-stance of not talking to the media only made these stories even more damaging. But concurrently, there were a few voices that said that he was a gem of a person, which obviously got lost in the deafening collective clamor of the media. Salman Khan did nothing to shush these stories and lived his life the way he always did then. But with time, his legend only grew. Today, he still chooses to live the same way he always did but today, in spite of black bucks, homicide and harassment, he is known more for ‘being human’, more for helping out friends and also as the most likeable of the Khans. Today if somebody tells you an uncool story ‘bout this Khan, you’ll probably brush it off cos well, u simply like the guy. J

• Another very recent example is that of the mellu rockstar, Santosh Pandit. His antics are considered buffoonery, his videos met with unprecedented abuses and he is an object of glaring public ridicule. But in spite of all his, today there is a new found accord amongst the junta that seems to like him for being the gutsy, daft yet harmless simpleton who defied and showed Mollywood how to ‘really’ make a profitable movie.

• I’m not even gonna mention bout the Rajnikanth cos you already know… J

So let’s go back to the Prithviraj issue – let’s face it, in spite of all his high handedness and his attitude issues, people will agree that this bloke’s main issue is that he just says whatever is on his mind. He’s actually a decent chap with his own set of pretentions, who’s still learning the ropes of the industry and has no bloody idea how to handle sudden success– I mean, you don’t bloody equate yourself to the Rajnikanth or the two big Ms of the mellu movie industry just cos u got a few hits in ur kitty. And if you think of it, what’s really compounded Prithviraj’s problem is not his attitude - I mean, SRK’s been saying things on similar lines for years now – but I think that Prithviraj’s real problem is that veteran mallu actor Srinivasan played a role in 'Udayaanu Thaaram' that people draw parallels with Prithvi baby. And that became the start of all of Prithvi’s problems!! J Today, that’s only a glimpse of the army of Prithvirayappan jokes that are circulating the length and breadth of the mallu universe thus making him the mellu Sardar.

And yes, Prithvi is pissed about it. But what he overlooks is the escalating fan following that enjoys and spread these jokes, making Prithvi the sort of viral that seem to be today’s biggest buzzword.

My advice to Prithviraj: “Dude, you’re becoming cult; use it to your advantage and harness the enormous benefits it entails!!!”

And how, you may ask? Well as Prithvirayappan as it sounds, hit ‘Like’ here n follow my blog!

J