Those are , of course, exaggerated versions of the real belt swords: very conventionally-looking but with thin blades capable of being wrapped around the waist. They have a hole on the tip and a button on the handle.
Tirri's collection had one. Elgood showed 2 examples in his book on South Indian weapons. The picture concentrated on the handle ends of them and did not show the entire blades. That was the reason one person of our mutual acquaintance boldly questioned the veracity of Elgood's description. Well....:-)
As a matter of fact, some Caucasian shashkas had very thin and springy blades and were kept fully bent in round flour sieves. So the idea is not limited to South India. The fighting capability of belt swords is unlikely to compare with traditional swords, but they were intended to be hidden weapons of the last resort.
The multibladed Kalaripayattu versions are in some way similar to Chinese chain whips. I suspect all of them are rather recent developments of martial arts schools.
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