Thuppariyum Sambu

Thuppariyum Sambu is one of the greatest detective short story series in the Tamil language, written by Devan in the early 20th century. The novel features its main protagonist as Sambu who is a rather stupid bank clerk in his middle age and solves great crime puzzles out of serendipity.

The stories are famous for their distinctive humor set around contemporary society and eloquently portray the conditions of the modern city of Chennai during the 1920s , 1930' and 1940's period. Some of his "Thuppariym sambu" episodes carry subtle references to the world war 2 also.

The prefix "Thuppariyum" comes from the Tamil "thuppu" = clue and "ari" = know ("yum" denotes present participle). Sambu himself is described by Devan as having a bald fringe, a prominent nose and a weak chin. Along with a generally bewildered stare his appearance invariably invites people to term him "asadu" (stupid), an assessment not far from the mark. This becomes an asset for Sambu as criminals often underestimate him. Even though Sambu displays a certain reasoning and cunning, it is Lady Luck who leads him to literally stumble on the truth. A typical Sambu story has him clutch a newly built window railing as he trips over some obstacle, and some stolen diamonds hidden in the cement by a mason come to light. The drama is maintained by Sambu triumphing over people who have previously laughed or ridiculed him, with Sambu often being the last to understand that he has actually solved the crime.

Sambu's stalwart champion in the police force is Inspector Gopalan, who usually brings a case to the detective's attention. Sambu and Gopalan usually have great regard for each other save for occasional irritants in their relations caused by Sambu's thin skin. Sambu eventually gets married to Vembu, who is clearly smarter than her husband and spares no criticism of her husband's vacuousness. The two eventually have a son called Sundhu who also helps in his father's work in solving crimes.

Sambu's detective career is launched when the Director of the bank where he works fires him for letting a corrupt bank manager escape. Sambu gets sweet revenge when the same Director eventually summons him to recover a lost pearl necklace. In another story Sambu traps the same corrupt manager who used to take great pleasure in referring to him at works as "that idiot". Sambu's best moments are when he walks into his old office on the case of the pearl necklace and haughtily ignores his former colleagues who once showed him scant respect.

In the late 1970s Thuppariyum Sambu was made into a popular TV serial with Kathadi Ramamurthy as Sambu and 'Delhi' Ganesh as the Inspector.

Also it must be known that the episodes were run in comics form in Ananda vikatan it self and the person who created it is none other than Gopulu very famous artrist

In one of the last episodes Sambu visits London and meets with Scotland Yard sleuths and solves a crime for them too and on his return from UK he is feted very well and his wife also delivers their daughter. With this the last episode of this classic serial ends.

This is also widely known to be based on the English fictional character Sherlock Holmes

External links

* [http://www.thrillingdetective.com/eyes/sambu.html Thrilling Detective page]
* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/2000/09/03/stories/13030679.htm A description of the characters in the novel]