News Tamil Nadu

Annamalai Takes Jibe At DMK Propagandist Actor Suriya And Alleged ‘Social Justice’ Filmmakers For Their Duplicity

April 13, 2024
The Commune

The DMK and its associates consistently assert ownership over the concept of social justice, positioning themselves as its sole guardians. They suggest that if they lose power and the BJP takes over, everything will change. However, Tamil Nadu state president Annamalai challenged this narrative during a press conference. He highlighted how both the narratives of social justice and the North-South divide are manipulated for propaganda purposes, citing examples such as films featuring actors Suriya’s “Jai Bhim” and Udhayanidhi Stalin’s “Maamannan”.

Annamalai, the BJP state president, expressed strong disapproval of DMK scion and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and his film “Maamannan” during a media interaction in Coimbatore. He remarked that, for decades there has been a narrative suggesting that everything will collapse if the BJP comes into power. Annamalai cited the film “Mamannan” as an example, where there are two towns depicted: one in the south inhabited by virtuous people and the other in the north inhabited by villainous characters who use the words ‘Ji’ depicted to create a propaganda for years.

Annamalai stated, ” He (Udayanidhi Stalin) will take a movie Maamannan, in which there will be two towns, North and South. The bad guys will be in the northern town and the good guys will be in the southern town. There will be a fight between the north town and the south town, like this brother, they will grind the same flour in the machine. If you see bad people, they will say ‘Ji’. Oh ‘ji’ then they are bad people.” 

There after, Annamalai discreetly hinted on actor Suriya’s “Jai Bhim” movie pointing out a prevalent pattern among actors shifting to Mumbai post their film successes. He emphasized the perceived inconsistency among those engaged in producing socially relevant films, implying that their main drive might be financial profit rather than a sincere commitment to social justice. He raised doubts about the authenticity of their efforts, hinting that their behavior contradicts their professed beliefs.

Annamalai stated, “If you go to a cinema and take a film, an actor will come and act in it, and then that actor will go and sit in Bombay. His children would study in Bombay and the actor would say, ‘I have made a film for social justice and this is how it is in Tamil Nadu’. Are all the directors and actors making social justice films show it for free? Money, brother money.” 

Annamalai clarified that there is budget and money involved in everything, his critique is not directed at the film industry as a whole but rather against the use of cinema as a tool for propagandist purposes, as exemplified by “Mamannan.”  He recounted an incident where Udhayanidhi Stalin named a child after a character from the movie “Vikram,” which depicted a character named Rolex involved in drug trafficking. Annamalai questioned the appropriateness of such actions and argued that individuals engaging in such activities lack credibility when discussing political change.

Suriya started dancing to the tunes of the DMK, just weeks after Jayalalithaa’s death. His voice against NEET gave credence to DMK’s propaganda on the exam which was politicizing the suicide of a poor girl. He used the exact terms that a DMK spokesperson would use in TV debates calling NEET and other exams as ‘Manu Needhi’ (Laws of Manu) and even went to the extent of derogating the courts for their stance. The actor also opposed the New Education Policy (NEP) saying that it tried to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states and that the policy as a whole is anti-poor.

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