KOCHI: Have you ever wondered what is filter coffee? Is it a coffee? Is it a filter? Is it a filter that turns you into a coffee? Well, if you are thinking your’s truly is probably on a caffeine rush, you can’t be more wrong. These questions, followed by many hilariously informative answers is courtesy of Nirmal Pillai, a Chennai-based Malayali who had me in stitches the first time I came across his Instagram reels.
The one that really caught my attention though, was the ‘famous sounds of Kerala’. If you thought that had something to do with elephants and chendamelam, you are wrong, once again. The video exposes the Malayali cheat code, one we didn’t even know we had, from ‘ayyo’ and ‘naatil eveedeya’ to our collective obsession with the movie Kumbalangi Nights.
The Thodupuzha-born, Chennai-bred 23-year-old is a witty fly on the wall. “I guess you could say I was always in this ugly mid place when it comes to culture. I don’t entirely belong in Tamil Nadu because I am Malayali. But when I used to go on vacation to Kerala, I used to feel like I don’t belong there either. This has helped me observe everyone and everything in a way,” he says.
An alumnus of NIT Trichy, Nirmal always had a thing for the stage and audience. “My school didn’t have a lot of cultural programmes. It was when I reached college that I started writing plays. After the pandemic started, I started working with my friends to put out simple, relatable content on social media,” he says. One of Nirmal’s first videos to go viral was from the ‘Harini Potter’ series, a desi adaptation of the popular child fiction Harry Potter. “Imagine a magic potions class, but you are making rasam,” quips Nirmal.
Input and output
Nirmal’s content stands out for its simplicity. To become an EDM fan from 2010 or a lizard, all he needs is a paper and pen, a turtleneck T-shirt and sunglasses — pretty much everything is home-sourced. “I started shooting on a Galaxy J6 and recently updated my phone for better videos. I don’t think you need to invest a lot in a video to make it funny. It is about the content you offer at the end of the day,” he says. The original jokes are tried and tested on a core group of friends, and as all Indian kids do, his mother. “If it works on them, I know it will work online,” he quips.
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