Sivakarthikeyan in Parasakthi.
Credit: Dawn Pictures
Chennai: Parasakthi, a movie that chronicles the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu and backed by the ruling DMK, will hit theatres on Saturday as planned but the film underwent 25 modifications, including deletion of Thee Paravattum (Let the fire spread), a phrase popularized by Dravidian legend C N Annadurai.
Bank-rolled by Dawn Pictures and distributed by Red Giant Movies owned by Inban Udhayanidhi, the grandson of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Parasakthi got U/A certificate. The movie is intended at educating the current generation of the language struggle that Tamils undertook in the 1960s against the imposition of Hindi, timed well before the assembly elections.
The anti-Hindi protests – a voluntary students’ movement backed by the DMK and Tamil outfits – was one of the factors that helped the DMK catapult to power in 1967 overthrowing the Congress government. The ruling party believes the movie will give it a political advantage in the elections despite the party being in an alliance with the Congress, which misread the anger of Tamils and mishandled the 1965 protests.
Parasakthi is also the title of the 1952 cult classic that heralded the arrival of Sivaji Ganesan as an actor and M Karunanidhi as a powerful scriptwriter.
Much like Jana Nayagan, whose release has now been stalled with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) not issuing the certificate, Parasakthi was also stuck with the Censor Board. Sources said the CBFC demanded 25 modifications, including cuts, removal of visuals, and muting of phrases, for obtaining the certificate.
“Initially, the film’s director, Sudha Kongara, was opposed to accepting the demands but the crew succumbed and accepted the demand from the CBFC. Once the producers agreed to cut the scenes, the CBFC approved the film,” a source told DH.
Thee Paravattum has been replaced with Needhi Paravattum (Let justice spread) and dialogues like anti-national scum have been muted in the film. The sources also added that the CBFC has also removed several dialogues of Anna from the movie, which will hit theatres across the globe on Saturday – the uncut version is likely to be screened in the UK.
The release of Jana Nayagan and Parasakthi on January 9 and January 10 suggested a proxy political war between Vijay and the DMK. The trailer of Parasakthi, which was released on January 4, has generated massive interest for the film with highly-charged dialogues on love for Tamil language.