TheAmerican mappillai (transl. American groom) also known asAmerica mappillai, is a stock character inTamil cinema, aNRI man who is portrayed as a potential suitor of the female lead character but is often turned down in favour of theIndian lead character.
D. Arachi ofFully Filmy noted that American mappillais are often characterised by their attractive looks, tallness, fair skin, ownership of an expensive car and better grasp of English than the film's Tamil protagonist. Variations of the American mappillai also appear in Tamil films, such as the Delhi mappillai, Dubai mappillai, London mappillai and Bangalore mappillai.[1] Film critic Anuja fromBehindwoods noted that an American mappillai was "an affected gentleman with a penchant for branded clothes or stifling suits worn in the peak of a tropical summer and of course, a horribly pretentious accent". She added, "his spoken Tamil is enough to make the ears bleed and his ego is usually the size of Texas", while noting the character typically "provides a lot of fodder for comedy".[2]
In her thesisWatching from an Arm's Length: The Foreign Hand in Tamil Cinema, Preeti Mudliar notes "the foreign mapillai (groom) finds that his status as a foreign-returned groom is undermined by either his villainous intentions, his fundamental inferiority to the values and virile appeal of the local son of the soil, or the comic relief he provides as a misfit in the changed landscape of the society he was once a part of. In short, the foreign-returned groom is frequently the loser in the romantic toss".[3] Referring to his 1997 filmMinsara Kanavu,Rajiv Menon noted "the privilege of the foreign automatically makes the groom a suspicious person when he comes to bride-hunt", explaining whyArvind Swamy's character in the film eventually lost out on the woman.[3]
ActorKarthik Kumar has portrayed such characters inAlai Payuthey (2000) andKanda Naal Mudhal (2005). The actor briefly announced his retirement in 2016, suggesting he was tired of being typecast in such roles.[4][5][6]
DirectorM. Rajesh has used the character several times in his films, such as through Arun (Arya) inSiva Manasula Sakthi (2009),[2] Shiva (Jiiva) inBoss Engira Bhaskaran (2010),[2] and Sanjay (Narayan Lucky) inOru Kal Oru Kannadi (2012).
Other prominent examples include Diamond Babu (Madhan Bob) inThenali (2000), Samuel (Abbas) inMinnale (2001),[2] Arvind Singh (Prakash Raj) inAzhagiya Theeye (2004),[2]Mithun Tejasvi inSandai (2008),[2] Roy (Benito) inVinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), Rakesh (T. M. Karthik) inNanban (2012),[2] Gautham (Rajeev Ravindranathan) inVettai (2012),[2] Deepak (Rahul Ravindran) inVanakkam Chennai (2013) andAshwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan inOh Manapenne! (2021).[7]
Arachi drew comparisons with another stock character in Tamil films, "London ponnu" (transl. London girl), that is often typecast as "a character with modern outfits (at least in the first half)" who then changes tones from "stubborn to submissive in the later half."[1] In 2018, a streaming series titledAmerica Mappillai was released, with the director announcing that he hoped to "destroy the stereotype".[8]