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Aditya Sinha: Thank God for Kollywood

Updated on: 23 October,2017 06:20 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Aditya Sinha |

Even as the government goes on the offensive against any criticism in mass media, Tamil cinema is raising its voice loud and clear

Aditya Sinha: Thank God for Kollywood

Thank God for the South, especially its cinema. What Delhi journalists or Bollywood's stars are unable to openly say, Tamil cinema does it loud and clear (laughing all the way from the box office to the bank): That the demonetisation of high-value currency last November 8, and the clumsy, complicated Goods and Services Tax in July, have both hurt the common person.


It's enough to make superstar Rajnikanth - whose on-screen bravery apparently doesn't translate to off-screen political commitment - change his mind about joining forces with the BJP in Tamil Nadu. (In any case, he missed his moment to take the plunge back in the late 1990s.)


A still from the Vijay-starrer, Mersal, which has made PM Modi squirm so much that his state unit has gone after the actor in the true BJP manner
A still from the Vijay-starrer, Mersal, which has made PM Modi squirm so much that his state unit has gone after the actor in the true BJP manner


Thespian Kamal Haasan caught everyone's Diwali-eve attention by apologising for having initially supported demonetisation. Though he is known for making U-turns, he would not have made one had demonetisation not been a clear disaster.

Of course, he has political ambitions, having declared intention to formally join politics, he has even met Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal, whose Delhi government soldiers on despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's best efforts.
Like Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan would be thinking of nothing less than Chief Minister - like the unemployed youth in a Malayalam film who furiously woo the damsel whose husband has gone off to the Gulf, veteran actors today see an opportunity opening, what with Amma's (AIADMK's J Jayalalithaa) death and the frailty of nonagenarian Kalaignar (DMK chief M Karunanidhi).

But to reduce criticism of demonetisation and GST to simply political ambition is to ignore the element of social commentary that has long existed in Tamil cinema. Vijay's latest Mersal cites these economic missteps and has made Modi squirm so much that his state unit has gone after Vijay in the true BJP manner, by reducing Vijay to some sinister Christian. Such nonsense will prove counterproductive in states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala (the BJP avoids such boneheadedness in the North East or in Kashmir). With such office-bearers, the BJP can forget about Tamil Nadu in the proximate future.

The producers have apparently agreed to edit out demonetisation and GST from Mersal, but not before the film has raked in loads of cash. I'm sure this is not lost on other Tamil film producers. It also won't be lost on actor-politicians either, like "Captain" Vijaykanth, whose DMDK was eclipsed in the 2016 Assembly election. It has been a steep decline for the Leader of Opposition in the preceding Assembly, whose eccentric behaviour dashed dreams that he would play a role in post-Amma and post-Kalaignar politics. The BJP's insecurity is enough for a smart handler to revive Captain's dead political career.

They're still better than our Bollywood heroes. I must confess, however, that had the Panama files money-laundering case hung over my head, I probably would keep my rich baritone-spouting mouth shut. Or, if I was a Canadian citizen who feared being thrown out of Bollywood like some Pakistani actors recently, then I would probably continue to fetishize patriotism and make documentaries on Swachh Bharat. It's an actor's democratic right to openly support the BJP, but if you're going to attack dissenters and minorities as "anti-nationals" then at least have the cojones to call out the PM for messing up the single job he had: To grow the economy. Perhaps a BJP spokesman's attack on filmstars - that they have low general knowledge - will galvanize some filmstars into action. At the very least, they now know the kind of abuse that the media has endured.

No wonder, then, that Tamil cinema is doing what is supposed to be the media's job. Modi's government has been on the offensive against the media from even before the 2014 election. Modi himself called journalists "news traders", and his minister VK Singh has said a lot worse. Last month saw an editor depart a major English newspaper because his "hate tracker" upset the government. Only the Internet has discussed the exposé of BJP chief Amit Shah's son's financial wizardry (newspapers focused on the son's lawsuit against the website that broke the news.) Shah is said to regularly contact newspaper CEOs to admonish them about their reporters in state capitals and their difficult questions.

Reporters now only write pro-government positive stories, for fear of losing their jobs. As a result, if you read newspapers you will not gauge the depth of Gujarati anger with economic mismanagement (though you might read about Surat traders' receipts that say kamal ka phool, hamari bhool), and you won't comprehend the extent of agrarian and small business turmoil. Newspapers will remain craven for the next 18 months; this will undoubtedly add to the growing existential crisis of the traditional media in the face of fake news and the New Media. You could thus do worse than spending this time discovering the cinema of the South.

Aditya Sinha's crime novel, The CEO Who Lost His Head, is available now. He tweets @autumnshade. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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