Minority Report | Pappu’s moustache
Air India's new mascot fuels the ongoing narrative of the contemporary Indian male as a caricature (that is when he is not a rapist)
Ever since The Times of India did a story last week on the makeover of Air India’s mascot, the much-loved Maharajah, opinion pieces have taken flight on various websites. The red-robed, turbaned, old man, whose bad posture, twisted neck and gentle manliness got memorialized as a symbol of Indian hospitality, is being replaced by a younger version. The new guy looks incorrigibly flippant. He could be Bunty, Bittoo or Pappu from Punjab, in tight-fitting clothes, spiked hair, a short-sleeved T-shirt with a mismatched waist jacket over it, blue jeans, sporty shoes, exhibiting vague body language. He looks almost inspired by an iron-pumping gym trainer, but since Pappu loves parathas more than the gym, he isn’t exactly a Greek god. He is also a dazed WhatsApp addict, fiddling with a smart phone, a boy-man revelling in extended childhood who will likely stumble into a wall instead of boarding a flight on time.
Air India is introducing its new mascot after joining the Star Alliance, a club of airlines that also includes Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa.
Most pieces written on this subject so far take swipes at the new mascot, drawing analogies between the airline’s currently desperate status and its attempts to revitalize its business and image. Our Pappu, hatched like a male chick from inside the gracious Maharajah’s plus-sized coat, supposedly eases us into AI’s “new look". But I have a few other arguments besides my versions of facetious Pappu descriptions. The most important is why the image of the modern Indian man has been reduced to a caricature? A point I repeatedly emphasize in this column. Whether it is a debate on Aamir Khan’s TV show Satyamev Jayate, debutant actor Tiger Shroff of the pearly teeth and sculpted body doing back flips at award shows or assorted impressions of diluted manhood on Comedy Nights with Kapil, the Indian man has been hopelessly trapped in a binary equation in our popular culture. He is either a provincial male, an aggressive rapist, who we collectively despise as Incredible Indians or an inconsequential dandy murdered by meterosexuality. No points for guessing who Pappu is.
It is all very well to say that this attempt of Air India to connect better with travellers of all budgets comes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s urging to the company last year to make air travel look accessible with an aam aadmi (common man) instead of a Maharajah as its mascot. But let’s read more into the creative psychology behind the new mascot, where a parody has been created to depict the common Indian man. It may also be worth our while to remember what the creators of Air India’s original Maharaja said in the past. “We call him a Maharajah for want of a better description. But his blood isn’t blue. He may look like royalty, but he isn’t royal," said S.K. “Bobby" Kooka, the commercial director hand-picked by J.R.D. Tata in 1946, who created the Maharajah with Umesh Rao, then an artist with J Walter Thompson. They are quoted on the Air India website. How right they were, and how little heed we paid to their sensible caveat.
Indian Maharajahs never bowed, except before the British. Smiling with eyes wide shut was a forbidden virtue in the practised hauteur of Indian royalty. Where royal costumes go, they never stopped above the ankles but always flowed to the floor, as symbols of material excess and the significance of not revealing a body part unlike insufficiently clothed commoners. Air India’s former Maharajah was indeed hailed as one for want of a better label. His moustache, a black and curvaceous handlebar, stood out, yes; this was indeed a kingly feature, blending old-style machismo with king-size largesse. So it may also be crucial to ask why Air India has retained the moustache while art-directing the new Pappu? A twirling moustache on the upper lip of a completely non-macho man—isn’t that a misfit? If only one outstanding symbol common between the new and old mascots had to be chosen for image continuity, why the moustache? I am tempted to wager that the moustache is growing upon us as a male fashion trend. Women with shorter hair (Sonakshi Sinha in real life and Anushka Sharma in the film PK) and men with longer moustaches are the new “in". Cricketers Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Bollywood star Ranveer Singh, who foxily experiments with his style, have or have had burly moustaches.
Stand by folks till the moustache trends as the badge of your frequent flyer membership as an Indian man. And be prepared for a delayed flight (of fancy).
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