In support of Red-Black flag?

Viduthalai, Part 2 (Tamil; 2024)

Director: Vetrimaaran

https://thesouthfirst.com/entertainment/tamil/
viduthalai-part-2-movie-review/

Continuing from Part 1 of the 2023 film, Perumal/Vathiyar is apprehended by the police. In Part 1, the conscientious policeman Kumaresan is the protagonist, providing his perspective on how the police force operates. Now, we discover how Perumal transformed into the person he ultimately became. Perumal is portrayed as a compassionate individual who goes out of his way to assist the oppressed. His struggle against injustice began during his time at a sugar factory, where the profit-driven owners prioritised profits over the welfare of their workers. The feudalistic bosses maintained control through oppressive tactics. Mysterious disappearances and deaths of dissenters were common occurrences, and the local police colluded with the mill owners.

The division between the labourers, primarily tribal individuals and members of the scheduled castes, and the capitalist owners fostered a conducive environment for communist and Maoist ideologies. Perumal becomes entangled in this.

The factory owner and his henchmen routinely exploited the tribal women for their carnal gratifications. When one of the husbands from a newly married couple stands up, Perumal finds himself caught in the crossfire. In his attempt to serve as an intermediary between the police and the rape victim's husband, Perumal is betrayed, becomes a fugitive, and is ultimately apprehended.

Perumal's perspective unfolds as he is escorted to the border, where he is to be formally charged. Everyone understands that Perumal will be executed along the way. Among the police team, there is anxiety within the ranks, each fearing that their own wrongdoings will be exposed. They attempt to eliminate one another.

Meanwhile, Perumal explains that the train bombing was meant to serve as a threat. Ample warnings were issued to defuse it, yet the alerts fell on deaf ears within the web of bureaucracy.

 

Perumal's men managed to intercept the police party and rescue him. In the ensuing clash, he was captured again and brutally shot at point-blank range while in police custody.

 

Viewing the film as a neutral observer, it positions itself as a sympathiser of leftist and caste politics. This is exemplified by its endorsement of the Red (leftist) flag and the Black (representing the atheistic anti-Hindu rebels of E.V. Ramasamy) flag. The combination of red and black in a flag would signify Dravida consciousness.

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The Maoists and the urban Naxalites!

Bastar: The Naxal Story (Hindi; 2024)
Director: Sudipto Sen

This is supposed to be inspired by actual events. That part may be accurate, but the problem is that this part of Indian history has been ongoing for so long that the moviemaker took the liberty of cutting and pasting events that happened at different times in India's history. 

For the record, there was a rebellion in 1910 when the British were eyeing the minerals in Central India. Come to think of it, that may be when the word 'thug' came into the English language. Tribal people who resisted British invasion were labelled as carnivorous people worshipping a blood-thirsty form of Kaali named Thugeesewari. The tribals donned machetes for farming but were labelled as armed resistance forces instead.

In the late 60s, when the Communist Party of India split after the Sino-Soviet split, a group of them had the idea of a peasant revolution changing the status quo. This group came to be named Maoist (after Chairman Mao). In 1967, in Naxalbari, tribal people fought with armed forces for land, aided by radical left-wing Maoists. After that, they came to be called Naxalites. In the region's most remote areas, in the spine of India, cutting up to 10 states, the Naxalites took charge with their own brand of justice, local panchayat, and control of amenities.

Naxalite activities have been going sporadically. Occasionally, news of skirmishes along this 'red corridor' emerges. 

In 2010, 76 Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in Dantewada district in Chattisgarh. This was sort of the starting point for the movie. Before that incident, an advaasi (tribal person) was hacked to death for hoisting the Indian flag. The vendetta against the Naxalite leader spurred the widow to join forces with the police to fight the terrorists. 

In the background is a trial in which the State Government is accused of forming a paramilitary vigilante force named Salwa Judum under the auspices of the ruling party. The accusers were concerned social activists and academics. The movie insinuates that the leftists of the world have united and are having a stronghold and working in tandem with academicians, Bollywood, writers, politicians, and even the judiciary. There is a not-so-veiled reference to Arundathi Roy as a leftist sympathiser. 

The silver lining behind the above incident is that things have improved since then. Violence has de-escalated, infrastructure has improved, and tourism has increased by many folds.

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