‘Ormayundo ee mukham’ (Do you remember this face?) is an iconic dialogue by Suresh Gopi in his Malayalam filmCommissioner. Imagine walking around wearing a mask with this dialogue imprinted on it? Or, how about a mask with the word ‘Ahankari’ (arrogant) printed on it?
Sreeja Sreedharan from Thrissur in Kerala has launched a line of masks with film dialogues, pithy one-liners and Malayalam words printed on them. She markets them under her Kerala-themed merchandise brand, The Elephant Country, on Instagram. A senior project manager with an MNC in Bengaluru, Sreeja has been working from home at Poonkunnam since the first lockdown.
Says Sreeja: “When I wanted a mask like that for myself, my cousin, Fincy Franci, made one with the word ‘Ayinu’ (So what?) embroidered on it. I have my roots in Malabar and this is a word I regularly use in my conversation. Once I saw that, I wanted to make more of those because I felt that there would be other people who might like it. What if your mask can bring a smile on another person’s face?”
The brand was launched just over a month ago. “The response has been encouraging. The current batch of three-ply cotton masks is black in colour, with the words screen-printed in white. We plan to do masks in other colours as well,” says 39-year-old Sreeja. While her sibling, Lakshmi Sreedharan, helps her with quotes and concepts, the core team has her cousin, Krishna Saiprakash, doing the typography, and Hebins Cherian working on the digital content and packaging design. “I have a group of friends who help me with shoutouts and identify influencers or people who can help with marketing,” she adds.
In demand
Some of the the sought-after printed masks are those with ‘Dasa, etha ee alavalathi?’ (Nadodikaattu) and ‘Makeup kooduthalaano chetta’ (1983). She adds that there has been a lot of orders for masks with words such as ‘ahankaari’, ‘adhikaprasangi’ (audacious), ‘feminichi’ (feminists in colloquial Malayalam ), ‘aysheri’ (shortened form of ‘athu shari’ meaning ‘That is correct’/‘Ok’), ‘gedye’ (‘gedi’ means ‘dude’ in Thrissur dialect) and ‘enthella’ (‘What’s up?’), which is mostly used in and around Kannur district.
“We have more customers in the 18-35 age group. When we did a sale at OFIR Fest, a cultural and culinary festival in Kozhikode, there were enquiries from all age groups,” says Sreeja.
The masks are priced from ₹110 onwards, inclusive of shipping cost.
Sreeja has plans to include other merchandise under the brand. Customised shoes and T-shirts with dialogues are next in line.
Check out the products on the Instagram handle, @_elephant.country_
