Kollywood puts on a pantomime for the “ People of Eelam”

“The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora who support the LTTE, would consider anyone a “real Tamilian” (Suththa Tamilan), regardless of his background as long as he supports the LTTE. Actor Vijayakanth, who enjoyed popularity among the LTTE supporters, also justified the civil war in Sri Lanka as an internal matter some months ago, a comment which left many LTTE supporters disgruntled.”

“All that's gone is not gonna comeback, bugger - Don't
be looking back at what's gone and think
and worry yourself silly to death.
Don't remember all that's past.
Refine your thoughts, think
you are born anew today - grab your
grub, play and enjoy your life.
All that crap is gone, not gonna come back.” - Subramaniya Bharathy

(December 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Unlike Hollywood or Bollywood (Mumbai-India); Kollywood (Kodampakkam-India) has been seriously engaged in the politics of another country because of their “umbilical cord connection”. There are burning issues especially in Tamilnadu and in India in general, including the recent terror incidents in Mumbai.

Nonetheless, Tamilnadu’s celluloid heroes, villains, musicians and directors are on the anti-Sri Lankan platform to convey their concerns about the victims of the civil war whilst conveniently brushing aside the LTTE’s reign of terror. It is not a secret that great stars like MGR (Former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu) supported the LTTE until his death, whilst his contemporaries generally kept a superficial distance to an extent where they were not obviously associated with any Tamil militant movements.

Pirabakaran acknowledged that MGR had assured him of all aids including arms. Following MGR’s demise, actor Vijayganth also identified himself with the LTTE as he had a real soft spot for the leader of the LTTE and even showed his admiration in the film titled “Capton Pirabakaran”. The Sri Lankan Diaspora recognized him as having “Tamil consciousness”. Even MGR was a Malayali (Kerala origin) by ethnicity but he was accepted as “Tamilian” in the broader spectrum of Dravidian ethnic composition. He was born in Kandy and could have acquired Sri Lankan (Ceylon) nationality by registration had his family remained there without relocating to South India. He was ungrateful to the country which helped his family to live and work, like thousands of upcountry Tamils and Malayalis. He was prepared to supply arms to Pirabakaran to spearhead his terror struggle which was frequently aimed at innocent civilians beyond geographical boundaries of the North and the East. Tamilnadu has a long tradition of integration of all races and religions. A culture of integration has always been nurtured by the people of Tamilnadu despite, having had a past history of annihilating Samanars (Tamil Jain) in the 7th century A.D by the Hindu Extremists and the current practice of discriminating Dhaliths. In general the people of Tamilnadu seemed to have adopted the policy of “Not to see the origin of a river or a sage” as the origin of both could be vile (Rishi Moolam or Nathi Moolam ). This is not only a mere epigram in Tamil but a principle practiced by the people of Tamilnadu. The classical example of this practice is very much evident in socio-political spectrum; prominent figures like Jeyalaitha Jeyaram (Leader of ADMK-former Chief minister of Tamilnadu) , Actor Rajanikhanth and the late reformer , Periyar are not “ Tamilians” but have been adopted to be “Tamilians”. The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora who support the LTTE, would consider anyone a “real Tamilian” (Suththa Tamilan), regardless of his background as long as he supports the LTTE. Actor Vijayakanth, who enjoyed popularity among the LTTE supporters, also justified the civil war in Sri Lanka as an internal matter some months ago, a comment which left many LTTE supporters disgruntled. However, when things rapidly changed in Tamilnadu, he seized the opportunity to blame M. Karunananithi and reemerge as the “saviour” of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The parades of cine artists lead the crowd to mobilize anti-Sri Lankan sentiment all over Tamilnadu. Mansoor Ali Khan, who played the role of a villain, “Santhanakkadathal Veerappan” in a film, had stolen the show for his extra ordinary depiction of “Tamil consciousness”.He warned that if Sri Lanka did not stop the war, then Sri Lanka would be merged with India. He was infamous, a few years ago when he was arrested on an alleged rape. Film Director Ameer also spoke in the same vein. Another admirer of Pirabakaran was Veerappan. It is learnt that Veerappan’s wife has now been arrested under The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

Actor Kamal Hassan, who showed no interest in national or Sri Lankan politics in the past, has shown his fraternity by his participation in the protest. Film Director, Ameer (Muslim) who seemed to have had no knowledge of what the LTTE had done to the Muslims of the North and the East of Sri Lanka, took to the forefront of protesters, along with his colleague, Seeman, another film Director. Some Tamil actors and directors put on show their ominous racist comments against Sinhalese and even Sheiks. This is a deviation of Tamilnadu’s tradition of integration. The outstanding Tamil lyricist, Vyramuthu who is known as “ Kavi Perarasu” ( Emperor of Poets), asserted that “Ilankai” ( Sri Lanka) was the country that was ruled by Tamils and “that land” belongs to Tamils. Subramaniya Bharathy, the great pre-independence Tamil Poet in Tamilnadu also wrote in his poem that, “(We) build a bridge to Sinhalese Island and pave a road by surfacing the Sethu”. He only referred to Sri Lanka as Sinhalam or Sihalaththeevu. In one of his poems conveying his appreciation of Tamilnadu, he recounted a part of history that the Tamils of Tamilnadu hoisted their “Tiger flags” (Pulikodi) in many countries like Java and Sinhalam. It seems that Bharathy’s “poetical metaphors” have now extended to “theatrical aggression”. It was in the early 50’s, that Bharathithasan, another popular Tamil poet stirred up Tamil racism that only a Tamilian who has mastered the Tamil language should be the Chief minister of Tamilnadu but even his abnormal affinity for language nor his Tamil movement (Thamiliyakkam) could muster support from the Tamil people. Actor Sathiyaraj who played the role of the great reformer of Tamilnadu, E.V.Ramasamy Nayakkar (Periyar), denied the historical rights of the Sinhalese to Sri Lanka. Soon after his film “Periyar”, he indicated his desire to play the role of Anton Balasingham who he considered to be one of the greatest Tamil leaders. It is learnt that Actor Kamal Haasan was named after a Muslim Indian Freedom Fighter, Hassan, who served his sentence in a Tamilnadu prison where Kamal’s father (Srinivasan) was also imprisoned for their activities in the Ghandian freedom movement, where in prison they became good friends. Not only did he give the suffix “Hassan” to Kamal but also to his other two sons. It is unfortunate that Kamal who has a history of bearing a Muslim name “Hassan” seems to be “unaware” of the so called freedom fighters who massacred the Muslims in the East and expelled them from the North in thousands. He remarked that they would be perceived as “Martyrs.”. Kamal Hassan also pointed out in his sermon, “In a society that does not guarantee fundamental rights, it is natural for radicalism to take root.” His film “Maruthanayakam” was based on a true story of a Dhalith who stood against the denial of fundamental rights to his community and later became a freedom fighter against the British Raj in the 19th Century well before “Veera Pandiya Kattapomman”.. His character then becomes a Muslim (Mohamed Yusuf Khan) to seek “peace and dignity”, (As displayed by the trailer.) Although “Maruthanayakam” was his magnum opus of his splendid career, he abruptly stopped filming it for the last 10 years, for lack of finances. Nonetheless, Kamal seems to have lost his nerve, as the film could bring about an unpleasant criticism from the high caste Hindus and the Hindu extremists. Kamal portrayed the Dalith as the darkest person in his film “Thasavathram”, which was seen as a bit offensive to Dhaliths. However his character Maruthnayakam was fair in complexion and not covered by black paint despite him being another Dhalith.


It seems, Tamil-Bollywood cult has extended its arms towards the UK. A high profile Tamil journalist told me that Iynkaran film distributor (Sri Lankan Tamil) has invested a large sum of money in Tamilnadu to produce seven Tamil films. If this rumour holds true, then Tamil Actors, musicians and directors have been bought over by pro-LTTE business magnets to play the tune of their financier and distributor. However Prabakaran , in his Hero’s Day speech, did not mention a word about the hue and cry of the showbiz giants in Tamilnadu, when he referred to the people and leaders of Tamilnadu and the leaders of India”. In any event, the Diaspora Tamil community is one of the biggest sources of income to Tamil cine world and what the actors do is making hay while the sun shines. Nevertheless, Pirabakaran has requested them (people) to raise their voices firmly in favour of their (LTTE) struggle for a Tamil Eelam state and to take positive measures to remove the ban and if the ban is lifted for political pressure from Tamilnadu , without going through due legal process, it would be India ‘s travesty of democracy.

(S.M.M.Bazeer is a political analyst based in London ) - Sri Lanka Guardian