Dhruvi Modi
Varsha Sriram
On Wednesday, a hashtag called #Pray_for_Neasamani went viral globally. People on social media relentlessly tweeted, shared memes and prayers using the hashtag asking people to pray for beloved Neasamani, a painting contractor. Apart from memsters who had one of the most eventful days creating hilarious memes, politicians and celebrities joined the trend as well.
You might be wondering who Neasamani is…
Contractor Neasamani is a fictional character played by actor Vadivelu in the Tamil movie Friends (2001) directed by Siddqiue starring actors Vijay, Suriya and Devayani. The character is nothing but an icon in Tamil Nadu pop-culture. In the film, Vadivelu portrays the role of a painting contractor and he and his apprentices’ work in a palace. In the iconic scene, the apprentice (Ramesh Kannan) drops a hammer on Neasamani after failing to follow a simple instruction.
How it all began
It all started when a Facebook page called Civil Engineering Learners posted a picture of a hammer captioned “What Is the name of this Tool in your Country?” An overenthusiastic Vadivel fan immediately linked the hammer (called Suthiyal in Tamil) to the iconic scene from the movie. Another user then mockingly asked “is he ok?” Other Facebook users were concerned about Neasamani’s health inquired about his well being.In a series of comments, the hashtag #Pray_for_Neasamani began to gain popularity on social media, prominently on twitter.
#Neasamani is trending on No.1 worldwide. The trend caught up after celebrities, politicians, journalists also tweeted praying for his ‘speedy recovery’
Here are some of the memes:
#Pray_for_Neasamani over took #ModiSarkar2 considering that today is the swearing-in-ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Many on Twitter asked the Centre to cancel the ceremony to show their respect to Neasamani.
DMK spokesperson Saravanan also gave into the trend and asked if the PM will visit the hospital or at least tweet to check on Neasamani.
Twitter also saw a lot of people changing their user names prefixing the word ‘Contractor’ like when BJP supporters used ‘Chowkidar’ during the election campaign.
Apollo hospital was pulled in after people started releasing fake bulletins on Neasamani’s health. The reference to idli was to mock at the spokespersons of the AIADMK who claimed that their leader J Jayalalithaa was recovering had idlis for her breakfast.
Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh tweeted saying “My beloved friend Neasamani had ardent love over my yellow turban. Had he only worn it on that day…come back neasa.”
Brands took this opportunity to promote their services.
Journalists also caught up to this phenomenon.
News Now Chennai 