The AIADMK has taken exception to the portrayal of real events by filmmaker Pa. Ranjith in his movie Sarpatta Parambarai, which chronicles the lives of boxers living in North Chennai around the time of the Emergency in the mid-1970s.
The AIADMK, arch-rival to the DMK, has sent a notice to Pa.Ranjith, Amazon India and others, stating that the movie contains “politically motivated verses” that seemed to favour the current ruling party in the State, the DMK. The notice has been issued by Babu Murugavel, the state Joint Secretary-legal wing for the AIADMK.
The AIADMK’s notice demands that Ranjith removes certain dialogues and sequences, or provide the factual evidence for these real events, and acknowledge that the context in which dialogues referring to MK Stalin’s arrest during the emergency as “misleading.”
Efforts to reach Pa. Ranjith remains unanswered.
In the notice, Murugavel said the movie describes as though Chief Minister MK Stalin was arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, which was in force after the imposition of the Emergency, the notice faults the filmmaker for showing the AIADMK in poor light and seemed to favour the DMK. The notice also charges Amazon for “forgoing its responsibility" of verifying facts while vetting the script before deciding to air them on its platform.
Sarpatta Parambarai, released recently on Amazon Prime, chronicles the life of Kabilan Munirathinam, an unloader at the Madras harbour who rises to become the fearsome boxer under the Sarpatta, a boxing clan that holds an enduring rivalry with the Idiyappa Naicker clan. In the clash between these warring clans, the mentor of the Sarpatta clan is being shown as a staunch DMK functionary. Ranjith’s trademark symbolism and caste references are present in Sarpatta too, but not so explicitly as in his previous films.
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