6 days ago
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Salim Kumar whitethorn not person been a superstar successful the movie industry. But erstwhile it came to societal media, the affable histrion — oregon alternatively his galore characters, adjacent from flop movies — was blockbuster material. So overmuch truthful that determination seems to beryllium a Salim Kumar sticker oregon meme for astir each concern and moment, often loaded with satire.
He was, rather literally, the uncrowned king of societal media memes.
For 3 years aft winning the National Award successful 2011, the genial histrion had stayed distant from the metallic surface owed to mediocre health. Yet helium remained live successful nationalist memory, acknowledgment mostly to memes that liberally drew connected his representation and witty dialogues, giving them a crisp satirical edge.
“Malayali audiences request lone 3 weeks to hide an actor, and I was distant from the country for 3 years. You kept my beingness live and helped maine marque a palmy comeback to the movie industry,” helium told youngsters down the fashionable Facebook page International Chalu Union (ICU) during his comeback.
He marvelled astatine however galore of his dialogues, agelong forgotten, had assumed epic proportions successful memes done clever contextualisation. “It is arsenic if those dialogues were meant for those memes,” helium said.
Characters specified arsenic Manavalan in Pulival Kalyanam, Pyari in Kalyanaraman, Kannan Sranku in Mayavi, the mentally challenged quality in CID Moosa, creation maestro Vikram in Chathikkatha Chanthu, advocator Mukundan Unni in Meesha Madhavan, Koshy in Ee Parakkum Thalika, and Chandran in Kunjikoonan were among those that recovered enduring popularity successful meme culture. Interestingly, adjacent characters from flop films brought backmost memories astir those agelong forgotten films, similar his roles in One Man Show and Kamalasanan in Venicile Vyapari.
Salim Kumar’s off-screen persona and easy-going attack to beingness astir apt made him a favourite with meme creators. He often joked that helium had been “killed” much than 15 times citing fake quality reports astir his demise.
During 1 specified speculative episode, this reporter, connected a nighttime work shift, rang his fig and hesitantly asked if Salim Kumar was available. Realising it was a sheepish effort to cheque if helium was alive, Salim Kumar burst out: “I americium precise overmuch alive, brother,” followed by booming laughter astatine his ain joke.
That summed up Salim Kumar - a antheral who could laughter adjacent astir his ain rumoured death.
