“I’m Venugopal, from Tidel Park”: Remembering Mayilsamy’s iconic roles

From En Purushan Kuzhandhai Maadhiri’s Doctor Kuyilsamy to Dhool’s Kunchako, here are some of Mayilsamy’s famous characters

Actor and comedian Mayilsamy passed away in Chennai on February 19. The actor, with a career spanning almost four decades, has starred alongside all the big actors and comedians of Tamil cinema of that time period.

Right from playing Firefighter Raju’s colleague/friend in Kamal Haasan’s Michael Madana Kama Rajan (1990), to playing Lalgudi Karupaiah Gandhi’s uncle in the RJ Balaji-starrer LKG (2019), the actor played a variety of roles over the years.

Here are seven memorable, crowd favourite characters of the actor-comedian:

Palayathu Amman (2000)

In this film which is more famous for its comedy scenes than the otherwise good vs evil plot, the late actor-comedian Vivekh plays Kalyanaraman who makes a living by conning. In a scene that spoofs the infamous debate between Yagava Munivar and Siva Shankar Baba, Mayilsamy donned the role of a god-man named Dance Saamiyar who ends up having a heated debate on spirituality with Vivekh, playing a fellow god-man. Mayilsamy getting flabbergasted by Vivekh’s answer to why cows in India go ‘ma’ but the ones in the UK don’t moo as ‘mummy’, followed by Vivek thinking that the UK is a cuss-word, makes for one hilarious sequence.

En Purushan Kuzhandhai Maadhiri (2001)

In this comedy film by Sura-director SP Rajkumar, starring Livingston and Devayani, Vadivelu might be dominating the comedy portions with his trademark humour. But the film is also famous for its scenes involving Mayilsamy who donned the role of Doctor Kuyilsamy. As a medical practitioner with a clinic that isn’t getting the footfall he expects, a troubled Kuyilsamy is even more agitated by his too-friendly female assistant who goes “ adhaan naan irruken la” as the solution to all his problems.