CHENNAI: Has the moral police has struck again? It certainly seems so, going by Monday’s attack on the car of Tamil film director Samy, whose latest film Sindu Samaveli (Indus Valley) has stirred controversy with its story on the forbidden love between a young girl and her father-in-law.
Samy, who found the rear windscreen of his car parked outside his house shattered on Monday, lodged a complaint with the K K Nagar police station.
He suspects that it was an act of vandalism, as he has been receiving “abusive and threatening” phone calls since the film was released in cinema halls on Friday.
Samy’s earlier films too have courted controversy. Uyir (‘Life’, 2006) dealt with the relationship of a married woman with her brother-in-law, while the protagonist of Mirugam (‘Beast’, ’07) was HIV-positive.
Sindu Samaveli was inspired by a Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev’s First Love (1860), said Samy. He said the film had no explicit scenes, and “even the women members” of the censor board who certified the film appreciated his approach.
“This is not the first time such a theme has been dealt with in Tamil movies. Netri Kann (1981) and Aburva Raagangal (’75) portrayed such relationships. I have only shown what’s happening in society,” said Samy, who courted controversy three years ago for ‘slapping’ an actress on the sets.
He alleged that a group of men had made it a habit to wait at ticket counters of cinema halls and threaten women going to watch his latest movie. It was only a small group, he clarified, adding 90 per cent of people had welcomed the film.