CHENNAI: It is perhaps a most popular word among the youth in the State. But on Friday, one of the hotly contested question in Madras High Court was whether gethu is really a Tamil word or not.
The counsel for ‘Red Giant Movies’, which recently rolled out a feature film with the word as the title, went to the extent of quoting lines from Arunagirinathar’s Thiruppugazh to claim that the word is indeed a Tamil word and hence the movie deserved exemption from entertainment tax. The State government grants the exemption for movies with Tamil titles. However, it was rejected for this movie, starring Udayanidhi Stalin, since a viewing committee, which makes the recommendation for the exemptions, considered gethu as non-Tamil word.
When the petition came up for hearing before Justice R Mahadevan, additional government pleader Haribabu, appearing for the State, argued that the committee was right in rejecting the exemption since the title was not a proper Tamil word. Senior advocate P Wilson, appearing for Red Giant Movies, started referring to epics and ancient Tamil literature to trace the origin of the word. He cited Arunagirinathar’s Thiruppugazh to argue that the word means ‘proud’. The court adjourned next hearing in the case to January 27.