Former Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar on Saturday condemned the recently-released movie Sarpatta Parambarai, directed by Pa Ranjith, saying that the movie has portrayed former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran in a bad light. In a communication to media, Jayakumar said, “Director Pa Ranjith has hidden 30 years of good governance by MGR in his recent film ‘Sarpatta’ and made it appear like MGR had no relation with sports. So this movie completely looks like DMK’s propaganda film.”
The former Minister recalled the schemes introduced by MGR to encourage sportspersons from underprivileged backgrounds to participate in international sports events.
“In 1980, in order to collect funds for Tamil Nadu Amateur Boxing Association, MGR brought knock-out hero Muhammed Ali to Chennai for participating in a match and after the match, he took Muhammed Ali to his residence and served him fish gravy. That’s the amount of love MGR had on boxing,” he said.
Jayakumar has also hit out at director Pa Ranjith for attempting to hide true facts. Jayakumar said, “Art is sharper than history. So hiding true facts is not just a betrayal for the person but the whole future generation.”
“Until DMK was not in the governance, Ranjith reacted like an arrow attacking DMK but now what’s the reason for the arrow to lose its sharpness. Is it right to throw dirt on the opposition in order to surrender to the ruling government?” the former Minister said.
Jayakumar added that the representation of MGR in the movie ‘saddens him.’
Sarpatta Parambarai is a period sports action film produced by K9 studios and co-produced by Neelam. The film stars Arya, Dushara Vijayan, Pasupathy, Shabeer Kallarakkal and Anupama Kumar. The film majorly deals with boxing culture in north Chennai and revolves around a fight between two groups: Sarpatta Parambarai and Idiyappa Parambarai. The movie also touches upon the political developments during the period including the Emergency declared by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the splitting of DMK and the formation of AIADMK.