The scenario is repeated in Chattambinadu (2009), directed by Shafi (who is also coincidentally the younger brother of Rafi), written by Benny P Nayarambalam. But here, again, that’s what saves an otherwise ordinary screenplay.
![kumbalangi nights casting call kumbalangi nights casting call](https://static.toiimg.com/photo/msid-67827828/67827828.jpg)
It’s again the same old stereotypes running overtime-Tamil landlords being uneducated, greedy womanisers. He is brash, cruel, dim-witted and has a fascination for the English language that predictably results in hilarious situations.
![kumbalangi nights casting call kumbalangi nights casting call](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/5/0/3/7/6/6/503766-kumbalangi-nights-0-230-0-345-crop.jpg)
Pandippada (2005), by the same team (Rafi Mecartin) follows a similar narrative, where they have a loud and caricaturish Prakash Raj (it helps that he is a familiar presence in Tamil cinema) playing Pandi Durai, a landlord of a village in Tamil Nadu. Perhaps any attempt to keep it real and authentic wouldn’t have raised as many laughs. But it’s also true that Punjabi House remains one of the most iconic comedy films of the time, so the irony is in the fact that it’s these very caricatures, mimicries and sly word plays (“char-chey-chor”) that really worked in the film’s favour. They also indulge in regular boxing matches, have a dance for every occasion and their women rarely get out of their ghunghat. The “Punjabis” in the film own huge mud tandoor ovens and apparently only cook rotis. There is Janardhanan as the elderly uncle, Maninder Singh, who dotes on his nephew Sikander Singh (Lal) and you know that even at gunpoint, he can’t recite even one of the 35 letters of the Punjabi alphabet.
![kumbalangi nights casting call kumbalangi nights casting call](https://shortcut-test2.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/role/attachment/839853/default_328709CEAAD5CC-0537-4136-84B8-25E3A81DA1CE.jpeg)
From casting quintessentially Malayali actors to play the part of Maninder Singh, Man Singh and Sikander Singh to mixing every Punjabi school textbook motif into their bearing, food and culture, even someone who has never been to that part of the world will guffaw at the stereotypes. In the Rafi Mecartin written and directed 1998 comic caper, Punjabi House, which has quite an ensemble, every single detail sketched about an immigrant Punjabi family is bluntly caricaturish.