It was a day that Tamilians decided to invade Twitter on a whim. And that was exactly what it was. A whimsical post involving a Tamil movie comedy legend on Facebook quickly morphed into the top India trend on Twitter, and even figured for a while in global trends. This is the story of #Pray_for_Naesamani and #Nesamani, which were getting more traction than even the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Union Cabinet.
This involves Pakistan. A Facebook page run by Pakistani civil engineers posted a picture of a hammer and asked users to comment with what it was called in their country. Enter a Tamilian. A user named Vignesh Prabhakar commented with a tongue-in-cheek throwback to Contractor Nesamani, an iconic character portrayed by Tamil comedy legend Vadivelu back in 2001. He called back to a comic sequence in which an incompetent underling drops a hammer on Nesamani's head.
Another user, Venkatesh Madamuthu, responded to Vignesh's post with a mock enquiry about Contractor Nesamani's health. In true social media style, they decided to pray from him. And #Pray_for_Naesamani was born. The hashtag spread to Twitter, where it gathered steam through Wednesday.
Indians from all the rest of the country woke up to Twitter on Thursday, puzzled, and Googling, 'Who is Nesamani'. By then the usually-active Tamil meme mills had gone to town with it. And almost all and sundry with a Tamil connection was getting involved - from cricketers to politicians to brands and journalists. Some of them added 'Contractor' to their Twitter handles, channelling how supporters of PM Modi turned into 'Chowkidar' before the elections.
Ace off-spinner and Chennai Super Kings cricketer Harbhajan Singh tweeted in Tamil. "My dear friend Nesamani has great love for my yellow turban. If only he had worn it today… Tch! Return to us Nesa," read Harbhajan's tweet.
Others prayed for the return of Vadivelu to cinema - apart from praying for Nesamani, of course. Vadivelu, whose one liners and mannerisms have become part of everyday conversations for Tamilians, has not been in as many movies as he used to till 2011. Nesamani launched him to greater heights to an extent that he eclipsed even Rajinikanth in a movie. Will Nesamani launch him again? Tamilian Twitter certainly hopes so.
