‘Freakers’ or ‘freakens’ are names given to young men who sport funky hairstyles or grow a long beard, wear low waist jeans and don sunglasses, or dress in a manner that is considered unusual by Malayalis. On social media, they are identified by the unusual font they use on their Facebook pages, words with mixed upper and lower cases letters, like ‘FrEaKs Of TrIvAnDrUm’. But life has not been easy for these youngsters, what with the police booking them often because of their ‘suspicious’ looks. Here, ‘Freakers’ share their stories.
Bineesh Bastin is an actor who has appeared in quite a few movies, his long beard that took four years to grow becoming his personal hallmark. “I actually started growing my beard long, inspired by the character of Spartan in the English movie 300. After that, I decided not to change my look. It became my identity,” he says. He has been in the field of films for ten years appearing in movies like Angel John, Pokkiri Raja, Thappana, and Passenger, his latest being Double Barrel. It is in Dam 999 that he first sported a beard because the character needed it. “A lot of youngsters become ‘freakers’ to get attention, to be different with their unorthodox hairstyle or beard or clothes. But this becomes a problem when it is time for you to get married, and no one is ready to give away their daughters to men who look like me. I mean, maybe I would also think twice if I have a sister, before I marry her off to a ‘freaker’.”
The bigger problem is, however, that certain character judgements become attached to so-called ‘freakers’. “People just assume we are drug addicts and alcoholics. I have never drunk or smoked in my life but I can’t escape this image,” says Bineesh. Assim Ahamed, a Wayanad freaker, echoes this feeling. “The police would assume we are smoking pot or are drug addicts just by looking at us. Many of us never touch any of these things. We just want to be different. And there is ‘no scene’ (no problem) at home. It is the naatukar (society) that assumes we are different.” Assim says it is not to show off before girls that they become ‘freakers’. “Like actors or celebrities have an identity, we want people to identify us when they see us. And we don’t stay aloof from society, we talk and mingle with everyone in the same way.”
A lot of times, one gets tagged as a ‘freaker’ without even trying to be one. That’s what happened to Richy Geo Thomas. A fashion designer who turned to modelling, and more recently to some acting, wears his hair long. He had long curls that resembled an Afro hairstyle, but now he has started tying it up. “And somehow I found people calling me a ‘freaker’. I don’t mind that but it comes with a lot of disadvantages. You get the image of a big time stoner. There was an occasion when I was riding my bike from Bangalore to Kerala, and the police stopped me and looked at me strangely because of my looks. It is sad that you are judged by your looks. But how I dress or wear my hair is totally up to me.”
Anisha Anilkumar, a store manager in Kochi, has the same view. Yes, girls too become ‘freakens’ or to be specific, ‘freakathis’. For them it would be just what they wear — a pair of jeans, a simple T shirt and a denim jacket around it and boots. “There is no extra style statements of long hair and beard of boys.” Is it just the looks that make one a ‘freaker’? “I suppose it is also a bit of our open-mindedness. We don’t care about what anyone else thinks, except our family. We can’t be bothered by others.” If for men, it is the drug addict image that becomes a problem, for women, it is the age-old issue of being ogled at. “You wear a sleeveless top, you wear shorts or skirts, and you get stared at. They judge you are ‘such and so’ girl as soon as they see you. But it is slowly changing now.”
