Not only has Pa Ranjith’s Sarpatta Parmabarai been hugely successful with audiences and critics alike, it’s also inspired a large number of internet spin-offs as memes and Instagram reels. Young people with barely any props have been single-handedly enacting dialogues of multiple characters and tagging the lead star, Arya, who has good-naturedly retweeted many of them.
Recreating scenes from films, very often as lip sync videos, is common on Tamil social media handles. Originally on Tik-Tok and later on Reels, these short videos have a dedicated following. Our timelines are full of Sarpatta memes right now.
The shot of Kabilan and Rangan Vaathiyaar riding the cycle has been a particularly popular choice. Other iconic moments from the film have also found their way in to the meme world. So, we decided to do a round-up of some of our favourites.
1. Remember Dhanush’s pedal-bike in Vellaiilla Pattadhari (also called VIP)? The running joke in the film was about how slow it was, though it ended up playing a sentimental moment in the film. Here Dhanush and Azhagusundaram (Vivek) race past Kabilan and Rangan Vaathiyar, prompting the boxing coach to say, “What Kabila, even this fellow is going faster!”
2. Earlier this year gave us another Vaathi. Vijay who played an alcholic ex-professor turned teacher at a juvenile correctional facility in Master was fondly called that by his students in the correctional home (or maybe ironically, because we don’t recall him taking a single class for any of them). Vaathi who zoomed everywhere in his blue retro Contessa had to cycle black home because the boys slashed his tyres. Never mind, Thalapathy turned to a jaunty ride while whistling the opening tune of “Vanda Naal Mudhal” and recreating the scene from the famous Sivjai Ganesan song which also features the legendary actor cycling down the road, similarly whistling.
In this meme, Vaathi pedals away with Rangan, saying, “Don’t worry, Vaathiyar. Come with me from now on, we can go happily.”
3. Kabilan swaps his cycle for what looks like an All Terrain Vehicle … in outer space! He tells his Vaathiyar that the 'Alien-appa parambarai' has them surrounded them.
4. The internet can be a truly amusing place some times. Meme makers often take things “meta” as kids say these days. In this one, a responsibly masked-up Vaathiyar and Kabilan discuss how they’ve been going meme to meme without masks until now and how important it is to mask-up. Right you are, Kabila.
5. Kalaiyarasan is an actor of formidable skill. His Anbu in Pa Ranjith’s Madras remains a fan favourite. His characters also have the unfortunate fate of dying all too often, so much so that even before the release of Jagame Thanthiram in which he played a dashing hot-headed gang member called Dheepan, Tamil Twitter was speculating if his character would survive. Even in Sarpatta ,many would have thought his stylish vetti-fold with an aruva in his mouth was the last we were seeing of Vetri. Thankfully, Vetri survived and celebrated his clan’s victory in the ring.
Meme-makers, though, aren’t letting us forget the close-shave he had. Vaathi looks over at Vetri by the ring-side wondering, “How did this fellow make it to the climax scene?”
6. Another one in the same vein, featuring both Dheepan and Vetri, is tagged with a Vadivelu dialogue "What a surprise. Nothing happened to us”. Yes, we were happy and surprised too.
7. Given the sheer number of Rangan Vaathiyar-Kabilan memes, someone naturally memed the memers. A collection of the memes interspersed with Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home is a hilarious response to the internet’s latest obsession. In the original scene, Peter Parker sadly observes in his 'mind-voice' that reminders of Iron Man are everywhere including in the graffiti around town. Here, it’s the master-student boxing duo who have been travelling the universe in memes, including to Pandora the fictional planet in Avatar.
8. After all, the two of them even cycled on to the sets of Master via memes. Of course, it’s the scene in which Vijay Sethupathi’s Bhavani sings the famous old Manorama song “Vaa Vathiyaare Ootanda” to taunt Vaathi. Kabilan cheekily tells Rangan “It looks like Bhavani is calling you. You should get off and speak to him.” The actors and crew from Sarpatta Parambarai seem to have been observing these memes and are amused. Santosh Narayanan put up a photo on Twitter two days ago with playback singer and wife Meenakshi Iyer riding doubles with him. He tagged the post “Please let me work, Vaathiyare”.
Enna vela seyya vidunga Vaathiyare . pic.twitter.com/mY3xIoRQLW
— Santhosh Narayanan (@Music_Santhosh) August 9, 2021
Not to be left out of all the fun, the Iddiyappa clan has also joined in. Both Shabeer Kallarakkal (the inimitable Dancing Rose) and John Kokken (Vembuli) posted photos of them cycling with their Duraikannan Vaathiyar (played by GM Sundar). Embed code:
@Music_Santhosh @beemji @arya_offl @officialneelam @GMSundar_ @PrimeVideoIN @K9Studioz #SarpattaParambarai #idiyaapaparambarai
— Shabeer Kallarakkal #dancingrose (@shabzkal) August 10, 2021
வாங்கோ வாத்தியாரே நாமளும் ஊர சுத்தி வரலாம்!!!
Vaango vaathiyaarae naamalum oora suthi varalaam pic.twitter.com/CKowmzMUpL
வேம்புலி துரைக்கண்ணு வாத்தியாரு ரெய்டிங். @johnkokken1 pic.twitter.com/xeMrJvisr8
— Rajkumar Pro (@rajkumar_pro) August 10, 2021
Sarpatta Parambarai’s own Raman, who slighted his Vaathiyaar for a military man from Bengaluru, has also been memed. Santhosh Prathap who played Technical Boxer Raman, light-heartedly shared the meme on his Instagram Stories.