No one ever in recorded history, satirists would have you believe, has looked forward to a dentist appointment.
Former India and Chennai Super Kings cricketer, Subramaniam Badrinath, must have been on the same boat until his last visit to the tooth doctor, when he had a chance meeting with one of the most legendary comedians of Tamil cinema.
Badrinath and actor Goundamani crossed paths at the dentist’s reception on the day, and the childhood fan that he must have been, Badrinath pounced on the opportunity to request a photograph with the veteran actor, who is notable for being a social recluse.
Badrinath recorded the event on his Twitter feed, captioning the photo with the following words: “When A visit to the dentist turned out more than nice (sic).” The cricketer then quoted one of the comedian’s most iconic lines from the film Suriyan (1992) in his tweet.
The reaction from tweeples was instant. The first to respond was his former employer, Chennai Super Kings, whose social media team left a tweet with a GIF image of Goundamani from the same film, showing him in an exhilarant mood (a snip from another one of Goundamani’s iconic comedy sequences in Tamil films), captioning it: “Badri after the pic (sic).”
More twitter users responded with their own version of what conversation would have transpired when the duo met, each one offering a more hilarious take than the other. Badrinath himself has revealed little of what type of words were exchanged when he met the legendary comedian.
Goundamani has not been active in Tamil cinema over the last few years. The veteran actor’s last feature film role was in the 2016 movie, Vaaimai. A former skipper of the Tamil Nadu team, Badrinath retired from all forms of cricket in 2018.