A recent tweet by an alleged right-wing supporter that called Malayalam superstar Mohanlal 'a closet Muslim' and 'bigot' has inspired an avalanche of memes from Malayalis and Lal fans on Twitter. Rather than getting angry at this outrageous slander, tweeps responded with humour.
One person responded to the allegation by posting a hilarious picture of Vijayan (Sreenivasan) and Dasan (Mohanlal), the epic duo from the evergreen movie 'Naadodikattu', dressed in Arab traditional clothes. “Unseen footage of Mohanlal and Sreenivasan being converted,” read the caption. Another person went a little further and commented: "Both are Gafoor Ke Dost too" (remembering the immortal lines delivered by the late Mamukkoya.)
Others also shared images of Mohanlal as Kunjali Marakkar, the Muslim-Arab warrior of Arab Descent in the Priyadarshan film – Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea and Georgekutty from Dhrishyam. "He is known as Mohammed An Lal Ila ha Ilalallah shortened as Mohanlal. He kills cows and buries them in his farm as a hobby," the tweep said (referencing to Lal's superhit film Drishyam).
This tweet also inspired another meme, where Mohanlal can be seen attending a function along with Jr NTR. Both are shown as Sunni leaders. “Last year Mohanlal had attended a function along with All India Sunni Jamiyyathula Ulama leader N T Rahim,” the tweet said. The trolls didn't stop there. One person wrote: "His real name is Mo Halal".
The accusation that Mohanlal was a closet Muslim began after a tweet from Swathi Bellam accused 'Hridayam' makers of including the Telugu Tyagaraja Keerthana 'Nagumomu Ganaleni' in a song, while the hero (Pranav Mohanlal) and heroine are seen eating beef curry and porotta. "Hero takes the heroine to a restaurant where they serve them hot beef curry and parotta and the heroine eats it and gives a look like that is the best food she ate in her life. I agree beef is national dish of kerala and they have to show it in every movie or else govt will ban the movie. Their state their food their culture. I am fine with it. But what was the necessity of using a sacred Telugu Rama Sankeerthan as back drop for showing this?,” (sic) she commented.