What’s your Mallu Quotient?

Founders Rosemary Jacob (left) and Sona Harris

Every Malayali at some point has posed the universal ice-breaker, "Malayali aano?" by another. Kerala's pop culture has always been peppered with references to famous movie scenes, dialogues, music and public debate that creates a universal feeling of nostalgia and humour across age groups and geographical locations, ultimately leading to deeper connections. Bengaluru-based Sona Harris, founder of Backflip Design Studio, and Rosemary Jacob, founder of My Cup of Tea, a curated pop-up, identified this need for a sense of community during the 2020 lockdown.

The green cards bear questions. The white ones are the answers

After watching 672 Mollywood classics and brainstorming over 347 video calls, Malayali Aano was born. "When Kerala experienced the 2018 floods, I wanted to create an activity that connected with Malayalis. Along with my co-founder Rose, we took this idea forward when the lockdown was announced. We were obsessed with a game called Cards Against Humanity. This game had an open Creative Commons license, and so we decided to recreate it in a way that Malayalis can engage and bond over popular cultural references," says Harris.

Each deck has cards with references to Malayalam movies, music and pop culture

Each card in the deck references a familiar phrase, movie scene, a popular personality, stereotypes and more. With a minimum requirement of four people to play the game, each session begins with a round of one player asking a question by selecting a green card from the box. The other players have to answer that question, with what they think is the quirkiest response from the cards in their hand. The one with the funniest response gets to keep the question card, and the one with the most number of question cards wins.

Apart from the laughter and light-hearted banter, the game includes topics that are considered taboo. "There are many areas that we still can't openly talk about; for example, sex. We also find a lot of derogatory or sexist references in earlier movies, so we included a few such phrases where people confront these biases while also having fun," shares Harris, who admits that they were expecting criticism when the game was released. "In fact, in the initial stages of the launch, we didn't reveal our identities. But the overwhelming positive response from Malayalis all over meant we were doing something right."

The beauty of the game, Harris adds is that people eventually get into a comfortable space. "This is why physical proximity is so important." The duo has got requests from cities like Melbourne and Mumbai, where users don't have a group, and so a digital version of this game is definitely on the cards.

Log on to: malayaliaano.com
Cost: Rs 1,899