A little Malayalam, a Rajinikanth song and a kasavu saree might sound like a winning combination. But the promo of Jailer 2’s Ala Bolelo has not received a completely warm welcome in Kerala, with several social media users criticising the way the Malayalam lines are sung.

The 32-second promo of Ala Bolelo, the first song from the upcoming sequel, was released on Tuesday evening. The track brings together Rajinikanth and Shamna Kasim, with Anirudh Ravichander handling the music and vocals.

Arunraja Kamaraj has penned the lyrics, while Niranjana Raman, Aparna Harikumar and Deepthi Suresh have also contributed vocals.

The song appears to be aiming for a Malayalam touch, much like Manasilaayo from Rajinikanth’s 2024 film ‘Vettaiyan’. But the attempt has not gone down well with everyone in Kerala.

The promo opens with Anirudh singing lines in Malayalam before the visuals move to Shamna dancing in a traditional kasavu saree. The choice seems deliberate, particularly given Shamna’s Kerala roots and the timing of the song’s release around Onam.

While some fans were happy to see a Malayalam flavour in a Rajinikanth song, others quickly took to social media to question the pronunciation.

One X user wrote, “Dear Tamils, please don’t include Malayalam in your songs or dialogues unless it’s pronounced correctly. Mispronouncing words,especially the “la” sounds, can be really irritating to Malayalis and may feel disrespectful to our language. This is NOT Malayalam.”

Another user questioned whether the lyrics were actually Malayalam, writing, “dude.... it sounds like gibberish not malayalam!”

Some also pointed out that pronunciation issues are not limited to Malayalam. A Tamil user joined the criticism, saying, “As a Tamil, I completely agree. They should've atleast hired a Malayali singer. I hate it when someone handle other languages poorly without any effort for authenticity.”

Another comment was more direct: “Hire a lyric writer and singer who knows malayalam.”

There were also those who saw the criticism from a wider perspective. One user pointed to pronunciation issues in Tamil songs as well, writing, “Here, Tamil songs only don't have correct pronunciation of la,La, Zha, na,Na etc. brother. It has gone to another level that nothing feels like Tamil. So, we are in the same boat.”

The Malayalam portions of Ala Bolelo appear to be an attempt to create a Kerala connection, with Shamna featuring in a traditional kasavu saree.

It follows the approach taken with Manasilaayo, which featured Malayalam star Manju Warrier and became a familiar part of the promotional run for ‘Vettaiyan’. This time, ‘Jailer 2’ seems to be tapping into a similar Kerala association.

Fans will not have to wait long to hear the complete track. Ala Bolelo is scheduled to release on August 21.

Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, ‘Jailer 2’ brings Rajinikanth back as Muthuvel Pandian following the success of the 2023 action comedy ‘Jailer’.

Ramya Krishnan, Yogi Babu, Mirnaa and Rithvik are returning from the first film. The sequel also expands the cast with SJ Suryah, Mithun Chakraborty, Vidya Balan, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Anna Rajan and Jatin Sarna.

The film is also bringing back its star-studded cameo line-up. Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar and Jackie Shroff are set to reprise their cameo appearances from the first film.

Produced by Kalanithi Maran under the Sun Pictures banner, Jailer 2 is scheduled to hit theatres on October 15.