Nesamani: Who is he and why does the world pray for him?

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BBC Tamil

Who is Nesamani and why does everyone apparently pray for him on Twitter?

Many Indians were wondering what was happening when #Pray_for_Neasamani and #Nesamani first became popular in India and then around the world.

And no one seemed to know him – with the exception of those in the state of Tamil Nadu, in the south of the country, who started the trend.

Contractor Nesamani is actually a fictional character drawn from a 2001 Tamil film performed by an iconic comedian.

The "plea" to pray for him is based on a scene from the popular film Friends.

In the scene, Nesamani is a building contractor played by the actor Vadivelu. He tries to restore a historic building, but struggles with his clumsy badistants who want to take everything he says literally.

A catastrophe is hitting soon.

One of them, who tries to fix a door up a staircase, drops his hammer. He lands just above Nesamani's head, making him fall (very theatrically).

#Nesamani is still the number one trend in India on Twitter and the second trend in the world.

But why is this trend now?

According to Sowmya Rajendran, film editor and feature filmmaker for the South Indian website The News Minute, it all started with a similar page in Pakistan on Wednesday.

Someone on the page, called Civil Engineering Learners, has published a photo of a hammer with the question "What is the name of this tool in your country?".

This prompted an informed Facebook user on Tamil to say that he was calling Suthiyal in his language, and then he added, without any context, that "the head of the Nesamani contractor was broken … with her".

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"Another Tamil user who was clearly in the joke replied: is he okay now?" and that's when it all started, "said Ms. Rajendran.

Other Tamil users have also started commenting, all making reference to the movie scene.

And soon, he took a life of his own.

On Twitter, people began to "pray for him" and memes, it seems, would not stop coming.

Nothing has been spared. People have referred to "hospital bulletins" similar to those published when prominent politicians are sick and that there were even "tweets" of photoshopping from world leaders.

And everyone wanted in

The politicians, the seasoned journalists and the stars of the film fraternity, got along well.

The "political tone"

Many seemed to welcome the fact that no one in the rest of the country seemed to know what was happening, many making mocking references to politics.

"As you know, Tamil Nadu has completely resisted the national trend, voting overwhelmingly for the party that did not join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). People are very proud of their culture – standing out and differentiating themselves – it's also an affirmation of identity – the rest of India does not understand us – we're following our own path, "said Rajendran.

She added that for citizens of the state, the movie was so familiar that they did not even need to "think twice" when it became a meme.

"Vadivelu is very popular here and Tamil Nadu has a very dynamic mem culture, so its films from the '90s and early' 2000s are very much used in memes, especially in political commentary," she said. .

But what does the man think himself?

"We asked him, himself and several Tamil TV stations, to ask him precisely that, but he's not on social media and he said he had no idea of what was happening, "she said.