Actor Vijay 'extremist', says TN minister

Popular Tamil actor Vijay on Thursday earned the tag of an “extremist” from the Tamil Nadu government which warned of appropriate legal action against him, the director and producer of his latest flick ‘Sarkar’ that shows people throwing freebies like mixer grinders and wet grinders into a fire.

Close to a dozen ministers tore into Vijay for his role in ‘Sarkar’ – the movie criticises the entire political leadership in Tamil Nadu and their policies for the past five decades, including the freebie culture – and demanded that the producers, Sun Pictures owned by Kalanidhi Maran, remove the controversial scenes from the movie.

While Law Minister C Ve Shanmugham said Vijay has shades of an “extremist”, his colleague and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said the actor cannot recreate the magic of the AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran – the legendary superstar who ruled Tamil Nadu for 10 years without a gap.

“In the garb of acting, the movie has criticised the Tamil Nadu government’s policies. By showing people throwing into fire freebies given by the government, the movie is trying to instigate people to subscribe to violence. He (Vijay) has behaved like an extremist and we have doubts as to whether he has links with organisations that are trying to disturb peace in the state,” Shanmugam said.

While other ministers also criticised Vijay, a few theatres in Madurai and southern districts were gheraoed by AIADMK supporters who demanded
immediate stopping of screening of the movie.

Immediately after calling Vijay an “extremist”, Shanmugham also held discussions with Advocate-General Vijay Narayan. This is not the first time that Vijay’s movie has landed into a controversy – his previous film ‘Mersal’ stoked a row when it had dialogues criticising GST and demonetisation.

The movie, which hit theatres on Tuesday, begins with Sundar Ramasamy, donned by Vijay, a corporate honcho touching base in Chennai to cast his vote. And when Sundar finds that his vote has already been cast by someone, he takes the legal recourse and gets the election results declared null and void.

In the process of taking on the political might of the rulers, the movie criticises almost every politician in Tamil Nadu and projects Vijay as the only alternative to rule the state.

Though the movie has been produced by Maran, nephew of DMK president M K Stalin, it does not seem to spare the party either. It has politically-loaded statements that takes a dig at the DMK and its leadership as well.