Campu. Campu was created by “Tevan,” the pseudonym of Ar. Makatevan, and appeared in a number of stories in Anar Da Vikatan and one novel from 1940 to the mid-1940s, beginning with “Thupariyum Campu” (Anar Da Vikatan, 1940). Campu is a short, ugly, fat, balding Indian man with a huge nose, a weak chin, and a head shaped like a vilaam fruit. He is a failure as a bank clerk, but happenstance leads him to begin investigating crimes. Those he helps give him money, and he becomes an official thupariyum (detective). He has a good memory for details, but his main attribute as a detective is his consistently good luck. He quickly becomes rich, successful, and beloved by the local police and the public in Chennai. After a few years, when his fame has sufficiently spread, he is invited to New Scotland Yard, where he solves a case which has stymied the Yard’s best men for two years. Campu catches murderers, robbers, jewel thieves, kidnappers, and a number of other criminals–nobody escapes him. He is assisted by Inspector Gopalan. Campu does not dress well and usually wears only a tattered dhoti (loincloth) and a worn overcoat.