Petition seeks ban on biopic for ‘incorrect portrayal’ of Kamaraj

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to ban the Tamil film Desiya Thalaivar, a biopic on Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar, on the ground that it depicts unconfirmed instances related to former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj.

Hearing adjourned

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Wednesday adjourned the hearing by a week, and asked Additional Advocate-General J. Ravindran to go through the papers before making his submissions.

A. Hari Nadar, founder-president of Shatriya Sandror Padai, had filed the PIL plea claiming that the wrong portrayal of facts related to Kamaraj in the biopic, released in theatres on October 30, could lead to clashes between Nadar and Thevar community people.

Mr. Nadar further said the film claims that the former Chief Minister faced a challenge in contesting the Virudhunagar Municipality elections in 1936 because of a rule that required the contestants to hold some property and submit the property tax receipt along with their nomination.

It had been depicted in the film as if Muthuramalinga Thevar attempted to persuade Kamaraj’s mother to transfer her property to her son, but his efforts ended in vain since the elderly woman refused to part with the property and insisted on retaining it in order to get her daughter married.

The makers of the film had claimed that Muthuramalinga Thevar had purchased a lamb, paid tax for it in the name of Kamaraj, and thereby, helped the latter contest in the local body election. Claiming it to be a concocted story, the petitioner said, there was no documentary evidence to prove such an incident.

The PIL petitioner also said that a similar story was included in Class VII Tamil textbook in 2019. Immediately, the petitioner made a representation to the then School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan, and after due consideration, those portions were deleted from school textbooks.

Stating that the same story had now been narrated in the biopic, the petitioner accused the director of the film R. Aravintha Raj and production firm SSR Sathya Pictures of having attempted to defame Kamaraj, whose rule in Tamil Nadu was remembered for the advances made in irrigation, education and industrial growth.

The petitioner sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to ban the film.