The trailer of Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor‘s upcoming romantic drama Param Sundari may have been praised by fans, but it continues to receive criticism from a number of performers and viewers from Kerala. The film, a cross-cultural romance, features Janvi as a Malayali girl from Palakkad. But her portrayal has been called out as over-the-top and stereotypical by many. On Thursday, it was Malayalam actor-singer Pavithra Menon who slammed the film’s makers. Now, content creator Steffi has echoed the sentiment and found a lot of support online.
Janhvi Kapoor’s Param Sundari role irks Malayalis
On Friday, Steffi, who has a popular Instagram account called @stuffwithsteffi, shared a video in which she dissected the trailer of Param Sundari, particularly Janhvi’s characterisation of her character Sundari.
At the beginning of the video, Steffi poked fun at the film’s stereotypical depiction of Malayalis by putting flowers on her head, saying, “Before I begin, I need to look like a Malayali. According to Bollywood, this is it.”
Reacting to Janhvi’s character’s comically long name and appearance, the creator added, “Not everyone in Kerala has a long name. It can’t get more stereotypical than this. It would have been best if the character was from Chennai, because she looks Tamilian.” She said that the makers ‘might just save this whole thing by saying her character is from Palakkad’.
Steffi also wondered if Sidharth Malhotra‘s character, Param, a Delhi boy, was stereotypical. “I also want to know if people from Delhi are offended,” she asked in her video.
The internet reacts
In the comments section, Steffi’s analysis received a lot of support from fellow Malayalis. There was criticism of Janhvi’s accent. “As a Malayali, I understood all the Hindi she said, but not a single Malayalam word she said,” read one comment. Another social media user added, “As a North Indian who stayed in Coimbatore for 2 years, her fake South Indian accent isn’t even consistent.”
One fan quipped, “Bollywood, please stop representing us. We don’t want representation. Please, please, please, leave us alone.”
Many echoed Pavithra’s concern in a previous video, in which she slammed Bollywood filmmakers for not casting Malayali actors for those parts. “So true!! They should have hired a Mallu actress,” read one comment on Steffi’s post.
In her video posted on Thursday, Pavithra, an actor and singer, had said, “Before we go further into the trailer, I want to address this: ‘What’s the problem in hiring a proper Malayali actor?’ Hum kam talented hote hain kya (Are we less talented)?”
About Param Sundari
The film chronicles the cross-cultural romance between the two leads, one from Delhi and the other from Kerala. Apart from Sidharth and Janhvi, the film also stars Rajeev Khandelwal and Aakash Dahiya in pivotal roles. Directed by Tushar Jalota, it is set to release on August 29.
