M Rafi Ahmed
Cinema and politics have often intertwined in India. Several actors have turned to politics post their film careers while Indian movies have also tackled social and political concerns in plot lines, albeit implicitly and allegorically. There are umpteen movies with politics as the story knot that captured the cinegoers’ attention. With just five days for India to go to polls, it’s apt to take a look at a few movies right from MGR to Vijay which created ripples in the political arena.
Close on the heels of the mega success of Nagi Reddy’s ‘Enga Veettu Pillai’ (1965), MGR was toying with the idea of entering politics and wanted to make a film to gauge audience response in seeing him as a politician. No sooner, Nagi Reddy suggested remaking the Telugu film Kathanayakudu for which MGR readily agreed and remade the film as ‘Nam Naadu’ (1969) directed by C P Jambulingam (Chithi serial fame director CJ Baskar’s dad).
Unlike the Telugu original, Nam Naadu was made with many politically charged dialogues because, according to film historian Prakash Raman, that was the period Ramachandran was about to launch his own party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Quite interesting to infer Nagi Reddy reported saying- “When it was released, we both went to Mekala Theatre to watch the reaction of the viewers. Except for the manager, no one was aware of our presence.
It was a pleasant evening and the doors had been kept wide open. MGR stood leaning on one side of the door and I was leaning on the other. There was a scene in which Jayalalitha, the heroine of the movie, appeared singing the song Vaangaiya Vaathiyaraiah while welcoming MGR after his victory in the elections.” Reddy went on to say “The audience rose as one man, cheering, clapping, whistling. There were cries: ‘We want to see the scene again! Repeat the scene!’ We advised the manager to oblige the audience. The reel was rewound and the sequence was shown again. I turned to MGR. His eyes were filled with tears of joy. MGR hugged me. O Reddiar! I have received the people’s acceptance.” Nam Naadu movie became a turning point in MGR’s political career.
Likewise, Raghuvaran and Arjun starrer ‘Mudhalvan’ (1999) film revolves around an ambitious TV journalist, Pugazhendi, who gets his first interview with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Pughazh asks harder questions, and the Chief Minister starts trembling and asks him to put his money where his mic is and become his replacement CM for a day.
After initially rejecting the offer, Pugazh agrees and does such a great job on his first day, that the actual cabinet collapses and fresh elections are held, where state voters eventually elect him to be their new official Chief Minister. The subsequent unpopularity and jealousy that the old Chief Minister goes through results in him taking revenge on Pugazh, and how he has stopped forms the crux of the story.
Toeing its line, director Manivannan’s ‘Amaidhi Padai’ (1994) is a political thriller film with Sathyaraj playing a dual role as father and son in the film, with Ranjitha playing the female lead. The story revolves around an ordinary man who builds his political career through shortcuts and unethical means, while his son grows up to be an honest law enforcer. Following which, Manivannan made ‘Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA’ in 2013 with Sathyaraj again in the lead. It went on to run for more than 25 weeks and was declared a blockbuster. This film is touted as one of Sathyaraj’s best performances.
Cinematographer and director K V Anand came up with ‘Ko’ (2011) starring Jiva, Ajmal Ameer, Karthika Nair and Piya Bajpai in lead roles, while Prakash Raj and Kota Srinivasa Rao appeared in supporting roles. The film follows Ashwin (Jiiva), a photojournalist working for Dina Anjal who covers the Tamil Nadu State Election. The core plot of the movie was reported to be based on the 2009 movie State of Play.
In Vijay’s ‘Sarkar’ (2018) directed by A R Murugadoss made an impact with the storyline of an CEO of a multi-national company creating a revolution through his fight to cast his vote, which had been cast illegally. The movie faced the ire of the AIADMK government in power for criticising welfare schemes of the CM. Actually, this movie paved the way for Vijay to plunge into politics.
Dhanush in dual role in ‘Kodi’ revolves around two lovers contesting on opposite sides in an election, and the ambitious woman kills her own boyfriend in pursuit of power. But what she doesn’t foresee is the dead guy’s twin brother which shocked her. There were several twists and turns in the politics based movie that was well received among the cinegoers’.
