Happy Birthday Vadivelu: Beyond Vagai Puyal’s slapstick humour

Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi: While the coward and sadistic King Pulikesi XXIII is remembered by all for his laughable demeanour, puerility, and ignorance, seldom do people remember the restrained and ever-serious persona of Ukraputhan. While Vadivelu played both roles in the satirical period drama, he ensured an incredible distinction between the characters. The change in body language was obvious between the two characters, which made things easy for the director Chimbu Devan, who didn’t have to go the extra mile to provide some expositions to chalk out the difference. Once Ukraputhan assumes the identity of Pulikesi, he looks at the sword hidden inside the ‘sengol’ and wonders what’s that. The scene is subtle but one can see the obvious shift in character, which proves Vadivelu has always been a great actor.

Thevar Magan: Vadivelu has spoken at length about the role, and how he wanted to impress everyone in the scene where Periya Thevar (Sivaji) dies. Seeing Vadivelu and another actor Sangili Murugan going overboard with their performance, Sivaji himself asked them to tone it down. Though we couldn’t see much of Vadivelu in the scene, Esaki (Vadivelu) is a brilliant presence in the world of Thevar Magan. The scene where he is admitted to the hospital after losing his hand in a fight is one such example. Sakthivel (Kamal Haasan) comes to see Esaki with a lot of guilt for being responsible for the fight. Vadivelu emotes a lot at the same time in the scene. He is on a pain-killer-induced haze and suffering from pain at the same time. He doesn’t have an iota of sadness for losing his hand, instead, there’s the sardonic humour when he says, “I can even ride a car with one hand. Just that I have to eat and wash myself with the same hand.”

EM Magan: This is my personal favourite of Vadivelu’s performance. The comedy legend plays the role of Karupatti Ayyakannu, the brother-in-law of Thirumalai (Nasser), a conservative and abusive father, who tortures his son in the name of imparting obedience. Ayyakannu, who works with Thirumalai, also faces hostile treatment from the latter, but he sticks around for the sake of his sister and nephew Krishna (Bharath). While the rest of the family is scared to stand up to Thirumalai, Ayyakannu is the only one who keeps calling out his shortcomings which hits a crescendo in a pre-climatic sequence. Vadivelu brings out the emotions of the bond between an uncle and his nephew that’s very much a cultural thing in Tamil Nadu. He also strikes a great balance in being the comedian and an incredible supporting actor in the family drama. Ayyakannu comes across as a well-rounded person rather than a character as Vadivelu makes him look real with genuine emotions.

Mari Selvaraj has tapped this incredible potential in Vadivelu that has gone unnoticed all these years. While Vadivelu has not been able to bounce back as a comedian in recent times (mainly due to the extinction of comedy tracks from our films), this unnoticed potential has come to the fore with Maamannan. It is not a new dimension to Vadivelu. It has been with him all this while.