Bollywood clichés: Shah Rukh draws public fury for 'Chennai Express'

Bollywood movies, predominantly, remains an over-the-top canvas, where every emotion is played out in exaggerated strokes and the characters possess superhuman powers and deal with any (and every) crisis with a song and dance.

While there are obvious exceptions to the rule, most Bollywood loyalists still enjoy a fun “masala” movie that specializes in fantasy.

As long as the audience is “entertained”, everything’s forgiven.

However, superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s next big ‘masala’ movie ‘Chennai Express’ has sparked a lot of debate over the stereotypical portrayal of his leading lady.

Deepika Padukone’s heavy Tamil accent has garnered immense attention – some bad, and some good.

Many panned her accent as fake and insisted it sounded more Malayali than Tamil.

In her defense, Deepika insisted that she has done her homework accurately.

Talking to Indian television channel CNN-IBN she said, “I think we should be given some amount of creative liberty. It’s definitely a South Indian accent. And, I’m playing a Tamilian girl, and I’m a South Indian myself. Yes, I do know of people who speak like that… I’ve done enough research to know that people do speak like that.

It also got a few columns in the leading national daily The Hindu.

“Not every Tamilian is characterised by forehead stripes, a fondness for idlis and an accent that appears to have been gargled through a mouth full of sambar,” highlighted writer Baradwaj Rangan.

He, however, insisted that the stereotypes weren’t restricted only to South Indians.

“But then, does every Punjabi male start to shake his shoulders to the sound of an off-screen dhol as a chorus bursts into balle-balle?”

The twitteratti too stepped in to voice their opinion.

Although, many have applauded the comic effort, the majority haven’t taken the reference too lightly.

“Okay the trailer of #ChennaiExpress is disgusting. Deepika has the worst Tamil accent, she sounds more like Bengali,” tweeted @MS__tweets.

“Deepika Padukone is to be playing a Tamil character, but she's wearing an Andhra saree and has a Malayali accent,” wrote @ZakariyaAliSher.

“Is @deepikapadukone 's accent in Chennai Express Tamil or Malayalam or FAKE?” asked @MsWeera.

“Remember that atrocious Tamil accent SRK had on in Ra-One? He sold it on eBay and Deepika Padukone bought it for Chennai Express,” mocked @mojorojo.

That said, it also won a few supporters.

“Really liked. Deepika's Tamil accent in CHENNAI EXPRESS.... Illa Illa;-)” tweeted @shHarranu.

“Deepika's Tamil accent is truely awesome..Looks like she worked very hard for that She and SRK both are the equal pillars of #ChennaiExpress,” added @iam_Nilay.

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