What makes Salim Kumar the face of Malayalam memes?

Scroll through any social networking sites or messaging app and you are sure to come across at least one meme featuring Salim Kumar’s contempt-laden face, the typical expression of Malayalis. The actor’s various expressions are the favourites of the ‘trollans’ of Kerala; and a meme is incomplete without his ‘Manavalan, Pyari or Omanakuttan’ images.
So, is Salim Kumar the face of Malayali memes? “Yes!” says James Sebastian, advertising creative head from Chennai, a frequent contributor to the troll group International Chalu Union (ICU) on Facebook.Quiz him why, and he says that after Jagathy, it is Salim Kumar who has been able to bring out a variety of comic expressions that can leave the audience in splits. “If you keep pausing a scene enacted by Salim Kumar, you would easily get more than four or five different expressions or ‘rasas’ which can be used in different contexts by someone creating a meme. Also, his characters such as Manavalan from Pulival Kalyanam, Ashan from Mayavi or Pyari from Kalyanaraman are so popular among Malayalis that they instantly connect to it,” he says, adding that Salim Kumar can provide a meme maker with everything he could ask for.
A frequent follower of memes, HR professional Athira Sukumaran says that the influence of memes is so much that she automatically visualises Salim Kumar’s face in her mind when thinking about a satiric moment. “The actor has given us some iconic comic moments in films. Just an expression or a word from him is more than enough to make us laugh. His face became more prominent after the memes became popular on social networking sites. He has actually triggered a laughter revolution in us.
Even if he is mocking at some serious issue happening in society through humour, it never makes us angry but just makes us laugh,” she says, citing the recent viral video where Salim Kumar says that Kattappa killed Baahubali because he claimed that ‘everything will be alright when the Left front takes over’.
The admin of one of ICU, Hrishikesh Bhaskaran echoes her views. “His ‘hu hu hu’ laughter of Manavalan and Pyari- Bhavani combination has led to some ‘hit trolls’, and the comments and likes have been beyond expectations.” Binu KS, another admin of the group adds, "ICU is a crowd-sourced-platform. We have no control over the pictures the members chose for memes, but still I get to see Salim Kumar's face every single day."
And what does the actor himself think about all this? “I never knew my face could bring out all these expressions. I am always surprised when I see a meme of mine being used by youngsters to convey a funny yet thoughtful message. I came up with those random dialogues spontaneously during shoot. I have to admit that these meme makers have amazing creativity!” Salim Kumar adds that he would be always indebted to the meme-makers as they kept his face alive even during his sabbatical. “Due to my ailment, I was away from the industry for three years. For the audience, it takes just four days to forget an actor, but these memes never allowed them to do so! And it brought me back to the same space where I was,” he says.