Scene 1 - Circa 2010. On a break from work in my hometown, the pristine valleys of Wayanad, I happened to bump into some friends pouring over a mobile phone, mocking and jeering at a video clip downloaded from the internet. In no time, a curious me joined the crowd and watched (with contempt) a frail middle-aged in a rainbow-coloured oversized jacket swaying `comically' with a girl, who looked hardly out of school. I held back my laughter and couldn't gather my wits to see it again. One more to the list of the silly new-generation Malayalam albums, so I thought and dismissed it.

Scene 2 - Circa 2011. A Facebook buff, I started noticing an increasing number of discussions about a man by name Santosh Pandit being shared on my wall. There were videos, pictures, quotes, and cartoons deriding him. "Child abuser'', "killer of Malayalam cinema'' - those joining the discussions cried in chorus. It suddenly struck me that this was the same man I had seen a year back in the video clip. Popularity - though negative, he was quietly turning out to be a hit in the cyber world.
 
A little bit of homework told me that Pandit was the director, cinematographer, music composer, lead actor (and what not) of the latest Malayalam flick `Krishnanum Radhayum'. Going by the standards of the Malayalam film industry, I wondered if critics would even call it a film. It had all the factors to be a flop, but for reasons difficult to discern, songs and trailers of the movie has gone viral on the World Wide Web.

According to Google trends, Pandit was the 10th most popular search from India on November 10, 2011. Wikipedia defines him as "a Malayalam film actor and director. He is known for his debut film  'Krishnanum Radhayum' in which he appeared in the lead role and handled almost all the major departments of the film.''
 
With netizens drumming up support for him, Pandit's film opened to packed houses wherever it was screened. From a mere three theatres to start with, the screening spread to 20, giving its makers and the theatre owners rich dividends. This was by no means a small feat coming at a time big-budget films starring superstars like Mammotty and Mohanlal were bombing at the box office. A college-goer who watched it told me that people were just screaming and hurling abuses at Pandit whenever he appeared on screen.

But then is there something more to the story? Was it just another case of a "bad director'' getting undue publicity? If cinema is a reflection of the society, then there was no way Pandit's production could be viewed in isolation. In fact, I felt, the `Pandit phenomenon’ (as I prefer to call it) offers a peep into the present day Malayal society.