There seems to be no end for controversies surrounding the latest Tamil film Jai Bhim, starring actor-turned-virtue signaller Suriya that is running on Amazon Prime Video.
In another instance of targeting a particular community, the official Twitter handle of Amazon Prime Video India posted a screenshot from Jai Bhim in which Suriya can be seen subtly spreading canards about Tamil Brahmins.
Actor MS Bhaskar who plays the role of a Brahmin lawyer named Sankaran and utters ‘Sivaya Namaha’ quite often, approaches Suriya (Chandru) in the corridors of the court to apparently to appreciate Suriya.
Here is how the interaction goes:
Sankaran: Chandru.. Very good ya. This haebus corpus case would’ve been dismissed in 2 minutes. You quoted the Rajan case! Sivaya Namaha! That was a wise move! The case has now come in your favour.
Chandru: No sir. I feel I’m handling this case wrong.
Sankaran: No no no. I’m telling you. You’re on the right path.
Chandru: No sir. If you’re being so positive, then there must be something wrong that I am doing.
In the above interaction, the character Chandru implies that Tamil Brahmins are cunning and not to be trusted.
#தந்தை_பெரியார் அன்றே சொன்னார்!#பார்ப்பான் எதை ஆதரிக்கிறானோ!#நாம் அதை எதிர்க்க வேண்டும் என்று!
🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/3PGkiIcLBw
— Saravanan Gandhi (@SaravananGand18) November 3, 2021
Amazon Prime Video India shared a screenshot of this Brahmin-misic scene with the caption “this scene 😂😂”
This problematic tweet was deleted after a Twitter handle named Reality Check India pointed brought it to light.
Cowards deleted the tweet after it went viral in Tamil #Dravidian circles – @PrimeVideoIN like criminals hiding from a flashlight. Will document this Amazon .. wait. Can we get explanation, who handled this account? 😡😡 pic.twitter.com/B3iyz7B6hF
— Reality Check India (@realitycheckind) November 20, 2021
Meanwhile, it was retweeted by several people belonging to the DMK including a sitting MLA of the party.
TRB Rajaa, the DMK MLA from Mannargudi sharing Amazon Prime Video’s tweet said “Meanwhile Namma aalu in Amazon”.
why does @Suriya_offl hate tamilbrahmins? No reason.. Mani Rathnam has been nice to his family. His brother is cast as VanthiyaThevan the hero of Ponniyin Selvan.. there are so many candidates. No TB ever took a film showing his community in poor light @nativethoughts @nchozhan
— Reality Check India (@realitycheckind) November 19, 2021
This is not the only problematic scene in Jai Bhim.
In another scene, the villain character was shown belonging to the Vanniyar community with their sacred motif ‘Agni’ being situated in the frame. The sub-inspector who is one of the villain in the film Jai Bhim, is portrayed as a Vanniyar man and being an enemy of the Irular community.
But in reality, the sub-inspector’s name who implicated the Kuravar men (not Irulars as shown in the movie) and thrashed them was Anthony Sami and is not a Vanniyar but is reportedly a Mudaliar.
After severe backlash, the makers of the movie replaced the Agni motif on the calendar with Goddess Lakshmi. However, there has been no resistance whatsoever on the deliberate targeting of Tamil Brahmins.
This is not the first time actor-turned-virtue signaller Suriya has been caught peddling propaganda. His earlier film Soorarai Pottru is a mischievous distortion of the story of Air Deccan’s G.R. Gopinath who is a Brahmin and a capitalist. However, he is shown as a follower of anti-Hindu bigot ‘Periyar’ E.V. Ramasamy Naicker and a ‘socialist’ capitalist.
In Soorari Pottru too, there is a scene that peddles hatred against Brahmins. In that scene a Tamil Brahmin is shown scolding poor people for eating Karuvaadu (dried fish) in train compartment.
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