For some bizzare reasons, Mammootty was briefly “Separated for questioning and grilled” by US Homeland security. In his passport Mammootys name is Mohammad Kutty Ismail Paniparambil. The buzz is that those who land in US with the name Mohammed Ismail are detained, and questioned at length, though no official reasons are given for it.

Anyone who follows buzz would know why this happened. Post 9/11, the passenger list is scanned for suspicious looking names — names which sound like Islamic terrorists — and they are taken for secondary questioning. This is quite normal and not bizarre. Moviebuzz says no official reason is given for it, which is sad because there is an official reason for it and it was disclosed by the FBI itself long time back.

After displaying his ignorance, Moviebuzz goes to new lows.

Remember Mammootty has a huge fan following in US, and is perhaps the best known Malayalee in the world.

The statement that Mammootty has a huge fan following in the US is totally misleading. One would think that all 306,367,000 Americans are fans of Mammootty. Maybe we understood it wrongly. Maybe he meant Indians. Indians form about 2,765,815 in number which 0.9% of the population. Assuming that most fans are Malayalis and their allegiances are divided between Mohanlal and him, the huge fan following would a minuscule number. This is why you have to be careful when indulging in hyperbole.

Now the second part of the sentence: “is perhaps the best known Malayalee in the world.” Probably yes. Probably Mohanlal is the best known Malayali in the world. Who knows. Or maybe the late Adi Shankara is the best known Malayali in the world.

The irony of it is that E.Ahamed a Malayalee is currently the Minister of State for External Affairs Government of India!

For the love of God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, we could not find the logic in this statement. Since Mammotty is a Malayali and E Ahamed is a Malayali, this should not have happened? Or should E Ahamed have intervened? Or the Homeland security officials in United States should have known about this relation and let Mammotty go?

What Moviebuzz should realize that it does not matter who Mammootty is or how many people know him or who the Minister of State is. If they have to detain and question someone, the pedigree does not matter. It does not matter even if you are a US Senator.

U.S. Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy said yesterday that he was stopped and questioned at airports on the East Coast five times in March because his name appeared on the government’s secret “no-fly” list.[Sen. Kennedy flagged by no-fly list ]

Finally, and ironically Mammotty does not share Moviebuzz’s anger.

“Every country has its
laws and systems. We too have it. We should obey those laws. I did not
feel discriminated or harrassed when I was questioned at the airport,”
he told rediff India Abroad. “This
is not something that happened to me alone. So there is no point taking
it seriously,” he added. Even US Senator Edward Kennedy has been
stopped at airports, the star pointed out.[When Mammootty became a suspect in New York ]

Or it could be true, as MovieBuzz suggested, Mammootty is really world famous. So world famous that Department of Homeland Security  folks saw Love in Singapore and they really wanted to tell him what they thought about it.