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Journalism of Courage
First it was actor Kushboo being cast in a lead role that caused ire. Then came the protests against the DMK government for funding the film. The BJP added its bit by protesting against shooting inside the famous Vardarajaswami Temple in Kancheepuram. But now, these roadblocks have been removed and Periyar, the film based on the life and times of E V Ramasamy Naicker — social reformer known for his atheistic ideology and founder of the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) — will finally be released at the end of February.
On February 10, the Censor Board cleared the two-and-a-half hour film “without any cuts”. A special screening of the film was held on Tuesday for TN CM M Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a break-away unit of the DK Karunnaidhi-announced financial assistance of Rs 95 lakh for the film “to signify the age up to which Thanthai Periyar (1879-1973) lived”, prompting a PIL against this gesture.
With Periyar and his DK known for their Brahmin bashing, the film too is bound to reflect some of these sentiments. But film director, Gnana Rajasekharan refuses to comment. “I made a film for the public. It will be released after a week. You can see it then,” says he.
The IAS officer, who also heads the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Youth Development in Sriperumbudur, hopes to reveal the human side of Periyar — a class four drop-out without any ideological moorings, who became a social reformer whose unconventional and revolutionary concepts remain relevant even today. The director has won two National Awards for his films Bharathi and Moga Mul.
Gnana Rajasekharan has cast Tamil film actor Sathyaraj, an ardent Periyar follower and himself an atheist in real life, as the Dravidian leader. Kushboo has been cast as his second wife Maniyammai and Jyotirmayi as the first wife Nagammai. Several real-life political personalities, including Karunanidhi, have been portrayed in the film.
To find the actor who best matched Maniyammai for the film, Rajasekharan used computer graphics and found that Kushboo closely resembled her. Even before the shooting began, a major controversy was sought to be raked up over the casting of Kushboo, who had been hounded by self-proclaimed Tamil protectionists for her remarks regarding pre-marital and safe sex.
The protesters demanded that Kushboo be dropped from the film as the person playing “Periyar’s wife”, “the great man’s shadow, who provided solid support” had to be “worthy of the role”.
The issue also figured in the TN Assembly with a PMK member demanding to know how she could act in a film, funded by the government, “when she had spoken in such disconcerting manner about Tamil women’s chastity”. In future, if the film is honoured by the DMK government “it would also honour her (Kushboo), someone who sought to undermine Tamil culture”, the member said. However, Kushboo described her role as a “lifetime opportunity and stuck to her decision to act in the film.
