CHENNAI: After superstar Rajinikanth’s appeal to people to be prepared for a kranti in politics, another titan of Tamil cinema and filmmaker Kamal Haasan seems to be towing in to follow a similar strategy and plunge into southern politics. A couple of days after Haasan urged his fans and public to send their complaints on corruption to the ministers concerned, the contact details of the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues vanished from the Tamil Nadu government portal.
This disappearing act came a day after the filmmaker, irked by the vehement attack he faced from the AIADMK and its ministers, asked his fans to shoot off their complaints. Haasan insisted that they use emails so that they can keep a tab.All along, Haasan has been political in an understated way, and many people have linked his film, Anbe Shivam, to his leaning to the Left-Dravidian schools. Then something changed. Many, especially those in the ruling AIADMK, even put a date to it—December 5, 2016, the day party chief and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa died.
In fact, what eventually became the Jallikattu protest on the sands of Marina could be traced back to a comment by Haasan to an English new channel, asking why not ban biryani if cruelty against animals is the reason cited to ban the sport. It sparked wide comments, led to petitions to the government, and the first batch of people gathered at Marina seeking permission to hold Jallikattu. Haasan supported the protest with laudatory comments on twitter, and then passed indirect criticisms against the new Chief Minister, who took charge under rather controversial circumstances, ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami.
But the Chief Minister and his cabinet ignored these as they were in a bitter factional feud against the rebels and also within. The current controversy started a week ago, when the actor alleged that all departments were soaked in corruption under the present regime. This time, the ministers did not take it kindly. The reaction was sharp and disproportionate—in that it did not focus fire, but attacked Haasan from all sides, including blows targeted way below the belt.
A couple of ministers addressed Kamal in singular (to transliterate in Hindi, they called him ‘Tu’ instead of the usual ‘Aap’ or even ‘Tum’), which is equivalent to abuse in the language of parliamentary politics. Another made remarks about his personal life—as a husband and father of two daughters. In a clear indication of lack of political tact, one senior minister threatened to probe into his tax payments; he may well have folded his dhoti and removed shirt for a fight scene inspired by a 1980s film.