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Nivin Pauly must have got the biggest applause in his acting career when he cracked that line about six packs in Thattathin Marayathu: “Keralathile aankutyolkenthinada six packs!” (Why do the men in Kerala need six packs?) He goes on to cite examples of Mammootty and Mohanlal. Generations of Malayali actors have survived without any ‘packs’, so what is all this talk about abs and packs doing the rounds now? The new movie Trivandrum Lodge too quips about the six packs an aspiring actor tries to develop. And then, there comes Prithviraj with his six packs in Aiyyaa. Do we then expect a new look for Malayali actors?
Not really, says Ashiq Abu, who is now directing a film called Da Thadiya. “Fashion statements come and go all the time. I don’t think the number of ‘packs’ you have will matter in a film. You first look at the face of an actor, not his body. You choose an actor for his personality. Look at Mammootty and Mohanlal, at Sathyan and Prem Nazir, at Amitabh Bachchan and Naseeruddin Shah.”
But aspiring actors are not taking chances, it would seem. Manu R. of Thiruvananthapuram has been a regular visitor to the local gym that is equipped with a trainer, for several months. “I don’t think there is any reason to ridicule this. Getting six pack abs entails real hard work. I was fascinated by bodybuilding ever since I was a child when I saw mythological characters like Hanuman or Shiva and superheroes like Superman, all of them looking well-built.”
Yesteryear child actor Midhun Murali, now a young man making his way into Mollywood, is also concerned about keeping fit. “I was into a lot of sports activities and dance ever since my school days. When I started college, I joined a gym. But when I got one of the lead roles in the upcoming film Black Butterflies, I was asked to stop going to the gym to suit the character,” he says.
Perhaps six pack abs are not ready to make their entry into Malayalam cinema, as physical trainer Vijay Krishnan observes. “Even Prithvi Raj developed them in order to make an entry into Bollywood. Most people at the gym are concerned about their health. Only about three out of 10 people come asking to make them have a body like John Abraham or Soorya’s. Otherwise, it’s just about fitness. Six packs are not a favorite concept as yet.”
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