An introduction to TN separatist movement!

Viduthalai Part 1 (விடுதலை, Independence; 2023)
Director: Vetri Maaran

This story is mentioned to be a creation of fiction. Still, a connoisseur of Indian, especially contemporary Tamil Nadu (TN) politics, would realise that it is a compilation of a hodgepodge of events around TN in the 1980s and 1990s.

The movie is based on a short story titled 'Thunaivan' written by 

Jeyamohan. In this movie version, an honest rookie police constable, Kumaresan, is stationed in a god-forsaken place on the borders of TN. This place is active with Naxalite activities, and the tribal people are said to be harbouring a wanted criminal, Perumal @ Vathiyar. He is said to be heading a terrorist group named Makkal Padai (People's Army) which masterminded many destructive activities, including a bomb blast and derailing a train, which caused much damage and lives lost.

Kumaresan falls in love with a tribal girl and soon realises everything is not as it seems. The police are not interested in performing their duties. They are just eyeing their remunerations and the medal that they will receive. The officers are just yeomen to their superiors and buying time. Nobody is interested in taking the extra mile or in what vital information he has to offer. The hierarchal order in the police is so toxic. The administrators are only interested in putting up a good image and recommendations from the public for work well done. The media keeps churning out half-truths. The whole machinery works for so-called development that purportedly improves peoples' lives, but in reality, it just fattens the coffers of the power that be. But he wants to do his job to do as a policeman. The first part of the offering showcases how this rookie comes face-to-face with the feared hooligan.

Pulavar Kaliya Perumal

The Makkal Padai is fashioned after Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA). TNLA is said to have formed after a reported incident when Indian Army personnel were sent to Sri Lanka during the LTTE insurgency. Apparently, the Indian soldiers raped or molested a big group of Tamil female detainees under their care. This fringe group had a bone to pick with the Indian Central Government, hence the formation of TNLA to liberate TN. Unable to garner support from the general public, they went underground, linked with the Communists and Naxalites to engage in arms struggles.

The gruesome train accident depicted realistically in the early part of the movie did actually happen. In 1987, The Rockfort Express train travelling between Madras and Trichy was derailed when Naxalites bombed a section of a rail track. Even though somebody did alert about the bombing, the message got lost in bureaucracy. Former Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram was supposed to have been travelling on that train.

TNLA was started by Pulavar Kaliya Perumal @ Vaithiyar (note a similar name in the movie - Perumal and Vaithiyar). It has strong links to the Communist Party of India - Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) but severed its ties to follow the Naxalites' path of arms struggle. It started as a sympathetic group to LLTE and fought for a separate nation within India. It is linked to many bomb blasts within the state. Many of its leaders have perished in bombing accidents or are behind bars. It remains a front behind many legitimate organisations and has established links with the sandalwood forest brigand Verrapan's group in Karnataka. 

Just for the record, CPI started in 1921. After the war with China in 1962, patriotism to India made it difficult to show allegiance to Mao. Mao's brand of Communism concentrated on peasant revolution, versus traditional Communism, which chose ruled by a selected group of workers named the proletariat. In 1967, armed peasants seized crops around Naxalbari and surrounding areas in West Bengal, which was already ruled by a communist government, as a revolt against their non-representation. The peasants controlled harvests and ran the villages like a government. They even ran a people's court to mete instant justice. The authorities shot it down, but it became a prototype for other people-controlled Naxalite-Maoist insurgency.

(NB There is an active movement to take Tamil Nadu out of the Republic of India. There is a feeling that TN is treated as a stepchild compared to the other states. The present political parties are mostly all self-professed atheists who oppose the current rise of Hindu consciousness in India. Ironically, a region that is testimony to the glory of Hindu architecture and knowledge has spiralled into this. And 'God's own Country' @ Kerala is governed by a godless Communist government!)

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When Ali met MGR!

Sarpatta Paramparai (சர்பட்ட பரம்பரை, Tamil, 2021)
Written, Directed by Pa Ranjith

One can learn a thing or two by watching films, i.e. if one is bothered to check the backstory. This is one rare full-length boxing film in Tamil, coming from a land that usually infuses familial masala to the storyline. In keeping with the timeline the story is set in, in the 1970s, there is ample sprinkling of Tamil Nadu politics to set the mood.

For once, we see actors who really look their part as boxers. The make-up, boxing techniques and the make-believe props that cradles us back to the mid-1970s are convincing enough.

Before watching this film, I did not know that boxing was a passionate sport in northern Madras even before the 1940s. Boxing came to India with the British. In Tamil Nadu, it was named 'kuttu chandei', and it came with its own set of rules. Boxers could not hit each others' faces, not the body. In the early 1940s, it seems there was a black British boxer (some say he is Anglo-Indian) by the name of 'Tiger' Nat Teri was a fighter to be reckoned with. He defeated most South Indian boxers. Arunachalam, the greatest boxer of Madras of yore, fought him but died during the match. Three months later, an up and coming star, Kitheri Muthu, fought him and beat the British at their own game. He hailed from the Sarpatta Parampai (Sarpatta Clan).

Kitheri Muthu and ‘Tiger’ Nat Terry 

The clan does not refer to any caste or creed. It is basically a group of people who live together in the same locale and show allegiance to the Club/Clan/Paramparai. This area in north Madras where this sport became famous comprise shipyard workers and fishermen of all religions, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Muslims. The other prominent clans were Idiyappa Naicker Parambarai and Ellappa Chettiyar Parambarai.

With 'Quit India' yells in full force in 1942, Kitheri's victory over Teri was hailed as a booster to the Indian psyche. Periyar and his people in the Justice Party feted him as a Dravidian hero. With that win also, the sport gained popularity. The game went on full force, with enthusiasts from other districts making trips to learn and perfect their techniques.

This movie loosely overlaps with Kitheri Muthu's story but is set during the 1975 Indian emergency. Kabilan, a fervent boxing enthusiast, has his boxing aspirations clipped by his mother. His mother fears that the fate that befell Kabilan's boxer father's life would repeat on her son. Kabilan's father used to be a feared fighter when gangsters from a rival clan knifed him down.

The story tells the competitiveness of the various parambarais and their effort to stage a boxing match amidst the background of National Emergency, witch-hunting of DMK party members (who opposed Indra Gandhi's government), internal squabbling and sabotaging of members.

The hero, Arya, as Kabilan poses with his opposer, Vembuli, in a pre-match photoshoot (Lt) and with his coach, Rangan, played by the talented Pasupathy (Rt). 

M Kitheri Muthu, one of the earliest boxers of the Sarpatta Parambarai.

Ali, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, and MGR, the Kollywood heavyweight, hold hands. An electrifying sight to the film-crazed Tamil movie-goers to see the star-politician and inspirational boxer together. Ali came to Chennai in 1980 for a bout with Jimmy Ellis in Chennai's Nehru Stadium. Boxing must have been that popular here that Ali decided to 'dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee' in Chennai. Before boxing became popular in Tamil Nadu, silambam was the primary self-defence sport. Gymkhanas and sports clubs were present even in ancient India.

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