#PrayForNaesamani: How Vadivelu outpaced 'Modi Sarkar 2' on Twitter

At a time when the country was heatedly debating who is in and who is out of the new cabinet in Narendra Modi’s second term, social media in Tamil Nadu was seen chilling with Naesamani jokes. Pushing the hashtag #ModiSarkar2 to second position, a new hashtag #PrayForNaesamani began trending on Twitter.

But who is Naesmani? And why should Twitterati pray for Naesamani? Not many outside Tamil Nadu would be familiar with Naesamani, a painting contractor who fell unconscious after a hammer fell on his head. As the hashtag picked up pace, Twitter users went onto have discussions about his health, and of him regaining consciousness. Tamil social media users have literally taken over the world with tweets and memes on Naesamani.

For the uninitiated, Naesamani is an evergreen character played by legendary Tamil comedy actor Vadivelu in the 2001 movie Friends, a remake of the Malayalam movie by the same name. Naesamani, with this team of painters, enter a bungalow for a painting contract work. As he commands his workers, his nephew unknowingly drops a hammer on his head, knocking him out. Memes inspired from the dialogues uttered by Vadivelu in this film and the comedy sequences are being shared massively, pushing it to the top of trends, and even garnering international attention.

It all started when a Facebook page, civilenglearners, posted a picture of a hammer and asked its followers what it is called in their respective countries. An apparent Vadivelu fan connected it to the scene in Friends, and commented that Naesamani's head was injured with this hammer. Another user, commented in response: “Is he ok?” And the rest, is social media history.

In Tamil Nadu, the meme industry thrives on Vadivelu and his iconic comedy scenes, bringing them up in response to socio-political situations. Speaking to News Minute, the actor said he was absolutely clueless of the trend he had kicked off on Twitter.