The commercialisation of election campaign has been busted in Tamil Nadu. The TV commercials beamed by satellite TV channels in the State promoting the arch rivals DMK and AIADMK feature same models, professional actors and actresses.
Channel viewers were in for a surprise when the DMK started beaming commercials seeking the voters to vote for the “Rising Sun”, the party emblem. What stood out in the commercials was the helplessness expressed by an old woman who bewails about the inaccessibility of leaders who fly by helicopters and look down upon the poor (ostensibly targeting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa). She asks the audience that the people in high places are least bothered about the sufferings of the poor and hence it was time to usher in the era of the DMK.
There were many such characters featured in the advertisements (commercials) produced and telecast for promoting the father-son duo and the DMK. There was a person who curses himself for selecting the present Government as his purse has gone empty since then and there is this engineering graduate who has been in search of a job for the last three years. All are unanimous in their opinion that only the DMK would save them.
The AIADMK too is telecasting advertisments highlighting the various measures launched by the Jayalalithaa Government during the last five years. It too had featured different sections of the society to drive home the message that the State has seen all round development in the last five years.
But what caught the attention of the viewers was a woman who curses the AIADMK regime in the commercial shot for the DMK and another woman praising Jayalalithaa Government for introducing the scheme of feeding poor people in all temples. “It is because of this scheme that I get two square meals a day. There was no one to look after me in my old age. It is because of Amma that I get the food,” says the woman.
A close scrutiny revealed that the women featured in both the commercials are one and the same. Kasturi (67) survives on the small income she gets as a junior artist in Tamil films and TV serials. When producers of the commercials approached her to act as a model for the short films they were shooting, Kasturi did not think twice as she was offered a few thousands. “I never knew it was for the DMK or for the AIADMK. The directors gave me one sentence to be told and I did the role without any difficulty. It was only after some friends told me that I have been featured in the commercials I came to know about it,” said Kasturi.
Kasturi is hopeful that her roles in the two commercials would be seen by movie makers and she may be offered some serious roles.