Senthil was at his peak during this period and he was extremely casual in taking a dig at Goundamani whenever he got an opportunity and in a classic example, he asks Goundamani if he has had his meal when Goundamani’s is just exiting a public toilet. The duo were unstoppable with their wisecracks in “Thalattu Ketkuthamma” in which Senthil, as pulipandi, sports a tiger tooth and tests Goundamani’s patience quite often and addresses him as “Sithappu” (read: Uncle), which became legendary in its own rights. In of the best scenes, Goundamani vows to burn both his own hands after misunderstanding Senthil for a dignified person from the back and showing respect by joining his hands.
One could not ask for more worse (read: appropriate) village costumes and ineptitude from Senthil that sets up a perfect backdrop for showering extreme contempt on somebody who couldn’t care less. The atrocity of Goundamani against Senthil continued in “Cheran Pandian” and reached new heights in abusing a jobless wanderer trying to be smart.
It touched a new level of hatred in “Enga ooru pattukaran” where Goundamani is naturally tempted to thrash Senthil every time he takes a glance at him.
Thalattu ketkuthamma tamil movie movie#
This movie also started a new trend of “iterated bashing” where Goundamani would take a hit at Senthil repeatedly for the same reason. It changed the notion of comedy forever by proving that slapstick can be achieved even through extremely realistic situations. It would be criminal if the universally hilarious and time-tested banana joke is not mentioned in any article about this pair. It was a classic example of mocking the current/future trends that was way ahead of its time and it was repeated almost identically after 8 years by Manivannan and Sundarrajan in “Suryavamsham”. In one of the scenes while walking into the bushes for morning rituals, Senthil curiously asks “where are we going?” to which Goundamani sarcastically responds “To learn Computer”. The spontaneous chemistry between them was quite evident and it was cemented when the most unforgettable movie of their career “Karagattakaran” was released. It was their exceedingly casual mannerisms towards each other and the rest of the world that created an indelible impression of a new comedy flavor in our minds through this film, which was a serious drama otherwise. This amazing pair was first spotted and acknowledged in “Vaidegi Kathirundhal” where our “all-in-all azhagu raja” gave one of the first of many to come ass-kicks to Senthil. Some may disagree with the thought that Senthil was at his best only when he was paired with Goundamani but it's quite obvious that the same rule didn't hold for Goundamani as he was very much capable of showing his prepossessed scornful attitude to anybody sharing the screen space with him.
Goundamani, being the star of the pair, also paired with some of his contemporary leading men to create the same magic as he did with Senthil in such a way that it can be a subject for another new article. Nevertheless, they had their own unique style of providing comic relief to our stressed minds. Arguably the greatest comedy duo Tamil Cinema has ever seen, these gentlemen even managed to draw parallels to the legendary Laurel & Hardy of Hollywood, whom they also seem to have drawn inspiration from.
“Forgotten” is certainly not the right word to describe the memories of Goundamani and Senthil in the hearts of Kollywood fans but they are only being temporarily eclipsed by the antics of Vadivelu and Vivek, which slowly died a slow death and more recently by Santhanam and Soori, who seem to have taken a lot of cues from Goundamani’s comedy formula of battering people and things around them.