CHENNAI: A Tamil film Pulipaarvai, believed to portray slain LTTE leader V Prabhakaran’s son Balachandran as a hero handling weapons with ease has met with stiff resistance from supporters of the Tigers who claim that the film will end up justifying the killing of the 12-year old child rather than exposing the horrific war crimes of the Sri Lankan government.
The film’s trailer shows Balachandran in LTTE uniform with a pistol in hand, receiving combat training. Pro-Tamil outfits say it could be an attempt to depict the child as a heroic fighter, in the mould of a typical Kollywood flick, but it would be a false portrayal of Balachandran, who was never trained in warfare.
Leading news websites run by the Tamil diaspora has come out with articles condemning the film as an attempt to make profit out of the plight of the island Tamils. Showing Balachandran as an LTTE fighter would only lend credibility to the Lankan government’s defence that Balachandran was killed since he was an armed fighter of the LTTE, they argue.
The brutal killing of Balachandran, while under custody of the Lankan army, is on top of war crime charges against Colombo and the film’s depiction of the innocent child would be counterproductive at a time when the UN panel has begun a war crimes probe.
The trailer also has scenes which show Balachandran in LTTE fatigue when surrounded by the military which too is factually incorrect, assert the Tamil outfits. Besides, the false depiction of Balachandran as a warrior would tantamount to support the charges that the LTTE was engaged in conscription of children.
The film produced by ‘Vendhar Movies’ and directed by Pravin Gandhi should try to give a true and realistic picture of Balachandran’s life, instead of trying to glorify him as a great warrior, one of the critics Raja Thirumagan S Senthilkumar commented. If the objective was to portray the cold blooded murder of Balachandran with a humane touch, the producers should come out with a clarification about the film’s trailer, he added.
The director should understand the seriousness of the issue that he is dealing with and avoid deviations from reality, even for the purpose of glorifying or adding superhuman qualities which were not possessed by Balachandran, another critic said.
Clarifying about the trailer, director Pravin Gandhi said “the scenes under question are part of a song at the end of the movie, after Balachandran’s death. The narrative of the film does not show the child as an LTTE fighter. There are no scenes showing him as receiving training and holding arms within the sequence of the film. The song with ‘imaginary visuals’ has been added at the end of the movie to bring out the child’s courage. He was not afraid or weeping before he was shot and this brave face of his character has been picturised in the song”.