The Madras High Court lambasted the demand to revoke the censor certificate issued to Mersal, the Tamil film starring superstar Joseph Vijay in the lead role. A Division Bench consisting of Justices MM Sundresh and M Sundar dismissed on Friday a public interest litigation filed by a Mylapur lawyer asking a direction to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to revoke the censor certificate issued to Mersal.
The petitioner had contended that the film featured anti GST dialogues and was a propaganda film against the Union Government. A Ashwathaman, the petitioner had expressed shock over the issue of a certificate to the film by the Censor Board for public exhibition. “Even though the film was full of wrong propaganda about the country and contained fake dialogues and scenes which would lead to misconception about the new taxation system.”
But the judges ruled that in a mature democracy the voices of the minority cannot be stifled. “It is for the viewers to take a call on the contents of a movie,” said the judges. The movie generated a lot of political controversy in Tamil Nadu and saw the BJP getting isolated in the State with all political parties coming together against the BJP.
Tamilissai Souderarajan, the president of Tamil Nadu BJP was the one who unleashed an attack against the movie for portraying medical doctors in a poor image. H Raja, the all India secretary who is also a chartered accountant, questioned the logic behind “distorting” the GST and termed Mersal a propaganda film against PM Narendra Modi.
All leading stars of Tamil film industry including Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan came out in the open expressing solidarity with Vijay and the film crew.
Chandrasekhar, father of Vijay, lambasted the BJP leaders and alleged that the attack against his son was because of his Christian background.
Vijay’s earlier movies too had created controversies for different reasons. Thuppakki (The Gun), the 2012 film was vehemently opposed by 23 various Islamist groups in Tamil Nadu allegedly for portraying Muslims as terrorists. They staged demonstrations in front of his house in Chennai.
The issue was resolved after Murugadoss, the director of the movie and Chandrasekhar tendering public apology and deleting the scenes suggested by leaders of Islamic community. Similarly, the film Kaththi shot in 2014 earned the wrath of DMK activists for referring to the 2G spectrum scam. A DMK activist had filed a case questioning the propriety in incorporating the 2G spectrum issue in the movie while a court was hearing the case.