For much of his 25 years as a comedian, his work was rejected by serious critics as slapstick and crude. The several alleged resurrections failed to bring his career back up.Īfter an ill-fated tryst in politics, Vadivelu’s career petered out by the 2011 election, in which he campaigned for the DMK, which lost, leaving the ruling AIADMK adequately angered. Vadivelu’s distinct ability to embody the hypocrisies of the common man, find comedy in real-life situations - even if tragicomic - and create believable characters, has made him a somewhat fortuitous theorist of modern Tamil society. His exaggerated facial expressions and loaded body language lent themselves incredibly to “meme” culture, which needed captivating visuals to tell its story. Vadivelu saying “Ahaan?” and “Is it?” are now part of legitimate language to respond sarcastically to fake news or false claims. Various kinds of Vadivelu laughter have been cathartic for those who celebrated Tamilisai Soundararajan and H Raja of the BJP losing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, for instance. His “Venaam, valikkudhu, azhudhuduven (No, it hurts, I’m about to cry)” has been the balm for many cornered souls. His “Vada poche! (Alas! The vada is gone!)” was once used to explain Hilary Clinton’s electoral loss. The already cinema-happy Tamil people find in Vadivelu the power of mockery and satire as a way to explain life. He has a portfolio so vast that there’s a meme-worthy scene for every situation.
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