Billed as the DMK’s film for the election season, Sudha Kongara’s Parasakthi, whose title is borrowed from the “quintessential DMK film” of the same name written by former DMK president M. Karunanidhi, has been slammed by none other than the DMK’s political ally, Congress, on the grounds that it misrepresents facts and advances non-existent conspiracies to prop up its narrative.
Demanding the removal of “ahistorical scenes” from the film and an apology, Tamil Nadu Youth Congress vice-president Arun Bhaskar has said scenes involving Congress leader Indira Gandhi, played by a lookalike, and the student leader were not historically accurate as Indira Gandhi did not visit Coimbatore on Februrary 12, 1965, or when the film shows her being welcomed by a train on fire, carrying signatures against imposition of Hindi.
Significant sequence
One of Parasakthi’s most significant sequences takes place near Pollachi where Chezhiyan (played by Sivakarthikeyan) has to prove to the Prime Minister that his anti-Hindi imposition stand is the voice of the masses and not his alone. To do so, he gathers students from across the State secretly and tries to galvanise a force, even as local forces try to stop him from doing so. In a heart-wrenching sequence, armed personnel fire at the protesting students in their quest to glean the whereabouts of Chezhiyan. Meanwhile, he has gathered students from other South Indian States as well and they also believe that Hindi imposition may result in loss of jobs and livelihoods. This, and several other facts, as portrayed in the film, have become a topic of controversy.
