International Nurses Day: 5 memorable nurse characters in Tamil cinema

With today being International Nurses Day, we take a look at five memorable nurse characters that we have seen in Tamil cinema.

In this drama by K Balachander, Suhasini plays the central role of Nandini, a nurse who has to single-handedly take care of her large family. And her life is a struggle one after the other, but she overcomes them all with grace and shows that hurdles will crumble if one is strong at heart. Suhasini is often seen in nurse costume, and we see how her profession actually gives her the courage to face her personal issues and vice versa.

This often-debated film has Sivakarthikeyan playing a lovesick youngster who dresses up as a nurse to make the girl of his dreams fall in love with him. While the romantic portions involving SK as a nurse are certainly controversial, as they do glorify stalking, the film does offer this character some warm moments, especially when nurse Remo shows how compassion can act a boost for kids.

Even though this one is a supporting character, it is one role that leaves a lasting impression. The late Kalpana plays a nurse and an accomplice to Simran, who is seen in the role of a doctor in this Kamal Haasan starrer. The episodes involving Kalpana and Simran trying to recover a watch the the latter has stitched into the abdomen of Kamal's character by mistake provides some of the best laughs in the film.

While she is hardly seen sporting the nurse uniform in this film, Sri Divya plays one. Though the character is written more as a romantic foil to Sivakarthikeyan's cop hero, the profession of the female lead actually has some say in the narrative. It is through this nurse that the hero that he come to know about an illegal organ donation racket that is being run by a corrupt politician, played by Vijay Raaz.

This one might come across as one film where the profession of the actress is incidental to the actual plot of the film, but it actually enables the romance between the leads. Anjali and Jai play a romantic couple in this film (with Sharvanand and Ananya as the other pair). Anjali, who is a nurse, realises that Jai, who plays her neibhour, fancies her. As she is a nurse, she tries to boss over him playfully by making him undergo several medical tests to prove that he is fit for marriage, contributing to some funny moments.