Petta (2019)
Before Hanuman and Sugriva could help Rama with his rescuing work, they had to fulfil specific tasks in the Vanara kingdom. Sugriva's twin brother, Vali had forcibly taken over his throne and his wife. On his defence, Vali feels that Sugriva had betrayed him. Vali had previously gone to fight a demon deep into a cave. After not hearing about his whereabouts, Sugriva assumes Vali to be dead, closed the cave door to trap the beast and took over as the ruler. Sure enough, the returning Vali was not pleased. He not only fought back the realm as well as his wife too. Vali had obtained a boon through Brahma who happily bestowed upon him the power to draw half of the energy of his opponents who should encounter him face to face.
Rama has to help out in return for the Vanara army.
To defeat the mighty Vali, Rama had to resort to what some warriors would call a dirty tactic. He instructed Sugriva to start a fight with Vali and from behind the covers of a tree, he mortally wounded Vali. Sita was rescued and blah blah.
The movie took this part of Ramayana to justify one’s seemingly ungentlemanly conduct to satisfy one’s personal intention. They seem to say that the outcome supersedes the means. Achieve your cause at all expense.
Petta is another masala movie that has too much senseless violence and thrives on the past meaningless mannerisms and ‘stunts’ that made Rajinikanth famous in his early days.
The real hidden message of this movie is politics. As we are aware, Rajni’s recent dabble in politics is frowned upon by citizens of Tamil Nadu. The thought of him associating with Modi and the BJP does not seem to go well. His foes describe him of selling out the Tamilian struggles to the Central control and the Northerners. Note the characterisation of politicians from UP in the film as the baddies and how he, as the true blue Tamilian, befriends a member of the villains to defeat them at the own game.
It is definitely his political statement. Now the question is, are the voters going to buy it?
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