Malayalam Features

‘Jimikki Kammal’ Is Now The Nation’s New Earworm

By Silverscreen India Staff

Velipaadinte Pusthakam, starring Mohanlal, isn’t the best Malayalam film out there. In fact, subjected to mixed reviews, most cinema-goers attest that this film isn’t Lalettan or director Lal Jose’s best ever. Could be their worst, too.

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Read our review: Mohanlal Wasted In Lal Jose’s Worst Film To Date

But the film’s song ‘Jimmiki Kammal‘ is a different story altogether. Joining the leagues of several other films who were actually saved by their songs, Velipaadinte Pusthakam is also officially on the map thanks to America’s Late Night Show host Jimmy Kimmel tweeting about it.

Internet broke loose, especially considering how the song’s name is hilariously similar to Kimmel’s name. One can even imagine replacing the lyrics to :

Entammede Jimmy Kimmel
Entappan kattondu poye
Entappante brandy kuppi
Entamma kudichu theerthe
 
While the song, composed by Shaan Rahman and sung by Vineeth Sreenivasan, Renjith Unni, is average enough, we mostly owe a young Accounts teacher from the Indian School of Commerce (Kochi) credit for making it go viral. Sheril G Kadavan thought doing a flash mob-like representation of the song would be a perfect exercise to strengthen the bond between students and teachers at the institute. However, she’s now the face of innumerable memes and dubbed “Tamil Nadu boys’ heart stealer” on social media.
 
Speaking to Edex, she said, “I participated in the dance just to get a kick out of it, it was the day after Onam and it was all in good fun. I never even dreamed that it would get the kind of attention that it has. It’s completely out of my hands now. I have been in a trance for the last couple of days and everything, including this, seems surreal to me.”
 
The memes are mostly dedicated to Sheril and her grace, with Tamil boys declaring their love for her and her dance. Sample these:
 
via Facebook
via Facebook

Oh, and much like her fellow Malayali Oviya, she also has a ‘Sheril Army’.

WhatsApp Image 2017-09-11 at 4.44.36 PM

WhatsApp Image 2017-09-11 at 4.44.37 PM

The memes are creepy enough, but the worst part is, she’s even the victim of several fake profiles. There are fake pages, accounts, and Twitter handles, and Sheril isn’t pleased. Her story is fairly similar to Mrinalini Ravi, a regular girl who was known for her Dubsmash videos. What the two have in common? Film offers from known and unknown filmmakers.

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And apart from Sheril being the face of the song, the lyrics aren’t exactly poetry either. A loose translation of the first stanza would be:

My mother’s shiny earrings
Were stolen by my father
So instead my mother
Finished his bottle of brandy

The basic idea of the song is about highlighting the saying, “An eye for an eye” or “Tit for tat”. The video, too, has college students frolicking about, with two boys from rival gangs sparring with each other. Only verbally and through looks though.

Much like other internet challenges, there’s also a #JimikkiKammalChallenge and users are miffed how they’re unable to stop listening to the song.

Silverscreen India Staff is a at Silverscreen India, and can be reached by email at contact@silverscreen.in