This festival season, the cinema halls in Tamil Nadu are set to turn into a political battle ground ahead of the assembly general election. Two politically loaded full-length feature films, Jana Nayagan and Parasakthi are set to hit the theatres this Pongal festival season in Tamil Nadu. Jana Nayagan, slotted to be released on January 9, four days ahead of the Pongal festival is expected to be a contemporary political action thriller with actor and TVK leader Vijay in the lead. The other film is Parasakthi, a period film talking about Tamil Nadu’s Hindi agitation days with actor Sivakarthikeyan in the lead is expected to be released on January 10.
Parasakthi is produced by Akash Bhaskaran who was once targeted by the Enforcement Directorate. He is indirectly linked to the DMK. The heat in the cinema halls this festive season is the prelude to the race in the political scene in the run up to the assembly general election.
Jana Nayagan is presented as Vijay’s final screen appearance as he plunges actively to pursue politics. Vijay and his supporters want Jana Nayagan to be the defining image of his political entry. The plot is centred around an ordinary young man who takes on the powerful people and is reluctantly forced to enter politics. Earlier, his movies like Sarkar and Thalaiva had a similar storyline. However, this time, with Vijay testing his political strength in the election, Jana Nayagan is expected to add strength to his political narrative in the state at a time when he is trying to take on the mighty DMK and the BJP. After a massive audio launch in Malaysia the advance bookings for Jana Nayagan will commence on January 4.
Parasakthi, helmed by Dawn Pictures owned by Akash Bhaskaran, a close associate of deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. It is distributed by Red Giant movies, which enjoys a near monopoly in Tamil Nadu’s movie distribution business. The company is now run by Inban Udhayanidhi, the 21-year-old son of the deputy chief minister. With Sivakarthikeyan in the lead, Parasakthi is based on a real-life character named Chezhiyan who became a hero for fighting against the imposition of Hindi. Pitched as a period film, the movie will talk about the anti-hindi agitation days in Tamil Nadu that strengthened the Dravidian parties in the state. And ofcourse Siva Karthikeyan is Tamil Nadu’s latest big star.
Though Parasakthi was initially planned to be released on January 14, it was advanced to January 10, a day after the release of Jana Nayagan. This advancement makes the fight both financial and political in the box office. Tamil Nadu will be in complete holiday mode from January 13 to January 18, the time when people will throng into the theatres with an idea of spending time with their families. Any movie released during this time makes the movie makers gain at the box office through the holiday crowd.
Both the films are likely to run at least in 550 to 600 screens across Tamil Nadu setting the tone for the political battle in the state. Though Vijay is not DMK’s political opponent, Parasakthi will subtly talk about Dravidian politics. In fact, Parasakthi, is the name germane to the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu. The title is the same as Sivaji Ganesan’s film released in 1952 with an inimitable screenplay and dialogues penned by M. Karunanidhi which made a revolution out of an ordinary melodrama. The dialogues and the screenplay made Parasakthi in 1957, changed the idiom of Tamil cinema. While the 1957 Parasakthi fuelled the idea of Dravidian rule, the new Parasakthi is likely to portray the 1965 student agitation movement against Hindi imposition capitalising on the state’s fight for language and linguistic rights. Though a non-political movie, the film is expected to fuel the Dravidian thoughts, this time among the youngsters.
On the other hand, Vijay’s film also has a similar political motive – position the actor who can single-handedly fight the mighty power centres and lead the people. Jana Nayagan, which literally translates to a man of the masses, is aimed to mould his political image. Incidentally, Vijay is following the Dravidian party style which used cinema as the platform and a powerful tool to reach the masses. Vijay, too, talks Dravidian politics. Directed by H. Vinoth, Vijay will play the lead role along with Pooja Hegde and Mamitha Baiju. The film also targets Vijay’s third biggest opening of all time in India and its advance bookings for the opening day crossing Rs 15 crore. Internationally, Jana Nayagan’s pre-sales had already touched close to Rs 12 crore for opening day tickets.