At the trailer launch event for their upcoming film Toxic in Bengaluru, actor Nayanthara took a trip down memory lane, recalling her work with director Geetu Mohandas on a film two decades ago. “Geetu and I have had a long and beautiful journey. We acted in a film together (Rappakal), maybe 20 years ago. That was a different Geetu,” she said.

At that time, Nayanthara had just started out as an actor, while Geetu Mohandas was making strides as a thespian and may not have even thought she would become a director one day. That was when they shared the screen in director Kamal’s Mammootty-led Rappakal (2005).

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Nayanthara played the female lead opposite Mammootty, while Geetu appeared in a notable supporting role. Penned by TA Razzaq, the family drama also featured Sarada, Balachandra Menon, Vijayaraghavan, Janardhanan, and Salim Kumar in key roles. The year was highly favourable for Mammootty, and Rappakal turned out to be a big hit, alongside the megastar’s Rajamanikyam, Nerariyan CBI, and Thommanum Makkalum.

From box-office hit to social media punching bag

However, over the years, Rappakal has become a laughingstock — a troll fodder of sorts — with memers constantly churning out content from the film. Interestingly, the very aspects that earned the movie praise and celebration back then are now the reasons it has become a punching bag on social media, highlighting that Rappakal is one of those films that has aged poorly. Although some who still adore the movie claim that it’s a product of its time, many point out that Rappakal simply glorified and normalised toxic, problematic, and intrusive behaviour.

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The film tells the story of Krishnan (Mammootty), an almost middle-aged domestic worker at the ancestral home of an affluent savarna Hindu family, and the matriarch, Saraswathiyamma (Sarada), who share a mother-son bond. While the large house still carries shades of a bygone era when it housed the whole extended family, only Krishnan and Saraswathiyamma live there now. Meanwhile, Gauri (Nayanthara) joins Krishnan as an assistant.

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Krishnan, who grew up in the household, is inseparable from Saraswathiyamma and loves everyone in the family deeply. For the matriarch, who became alone in her older days after her husband’s death and the migration of her children to other cities for work, Krishnan is her only relief. And the house is their paradise.

However, their lives take a turn when the extended family, all of whom have a stake in the house, decides to sell the place, which would eventually separate Krishnan and Saraswathiyamma. The remainder of Rappakal follows their emotional struggles.

Throughout the film, Krishnan was portrayed as an innocent, naive, uneducated, and overly protective man with no world beyond the four walls of the house. Meanwhile, screenwriter Razzaq crafted those around him by adhering to stereotypes often associated with urban dwellers — insensitive and materialistic, with no regard for nostalgia or matters of the heart.

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Rappakal also featured many moments that positioned Krishnan as the embodiment of all things good, while many other family members took him for granted and treated him poorly, most notably Janardhanan (Vijayaraghavan). Even though some, like Devanarayanan (Balachandra Menon) and Malavika (Geethu Mohandas), loved Krishnan, they were few. Tapping into Krishnan’s noble nature, Razzaq created several moments in the film that showed him being mistreated for it.

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However, over the years, many of Krishnan’s actions have come under scrutiny from audience, with critics pointing out that he often overstepped boundaries and showed little regard for others’ personal space.

From switching off lights without permission to get people — the literal owners of the house — to abandon their card game and go to sleep at night, to walking in uninvited during serious family meetings and sharing unnecessary opinions on matters that don’t concern him, Krishnan’s actions weren’t commendable. Many viewers have since claimed that the mistreatment he received was simply a response to his intrusive behaviour.

Not just Krishnan; even Saraswathiyamma’s character has faced significant trolling over time for selfishly tying Krishnan’s identity and existence to the house and never inspiring him to grow beyond it. Regardless of all he did for her, he was, at the end of the day, just the domestic worker and nothing more. Devanarayanan and Malavika’s silence when Krishnan became homeless has also been slammed by many, who point out that none of these characters was inherently good or virtuous.

Why Rappakal is trolled now

While poorly made movies have long been subjects of trolling, it is not common for once-celebrated works, which were both critical and commercial successes, to face such backlash. However, with changing sensibilities and a more sensitised audience, people are increasingly calling out those films that were successful but have aged poorly.

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In fact, Rappakal is arguably one of the most trolled Malayalam movies of the 21st century. The ridiculing reached such levels that people even altered the content of its Wikipedia page, sarcastically referring to Janardhanan (Vijayaraghavan), the character who treats Krishnan the worst and shows no likeness for his apparent virtue, as the film’s protagonist.

While the plot was described as “the story of a servant who interferes in a family’s private affairs,” Mammootty’s character was dubbed as “a public nuisance interfering in the affairs of an ancestral household.” The original Wikipedia page was later restored.