Curtains for film era in Tamil Nadu politics

CHENNAI: Along with political leaders and Union ministers who came to pay homage to Jayalalithaa were film stars. Movie-world men and women turned out in hundreds and were allowed into the VIP area. They were seen teary-eyed and shaken.

They may have had little connection with the AIADMK or even the Dravidian movement that spawned the party, but their presence reflected the connection between movies and

politics

in the state. Much as Jayalalithaa preferred to describe the AIADMK as the evolutionary culmination of the Dravidian movement, she relied on her movie star status only sparingly.

Unlike the other Dravidian movement leaders like Anna, Karunanidhi and

MGR

who were involved in films, Jayalalithaa was not schooled in its ideology. Her rise in the Dravidian movement was more by association with MGR who saw her charisma and talent for organising; he put it to effective use. Nevertheless, in stature, she was second to none from the previous generation of leaders.

“With Jayalalithaa’s death, the era of such tall leaders backed by movie charisma may indeed be over in the state. Now we will concentrate on issues, not just glamour and hero worship,” says film critic and historian Theodore Baskaran. Baskaran points out that MGR and Jayalalithaa made it big in politics not because of their popularity.

“Dravidian movement leaders like Annadurai and Karunanidhi had their own standing as political leaders. They did not gain an identity through films,” he said. Baskaran traces the Dravidian movement’s relationship with performing arts. The activists staged plays that served as a vehicle for their reformist ideas and the plays were popular too.

“One of the plays was ‘Parasakthi’ which resonated with Tamil audiences. In 1952, a film producer made it into a film scripted by Karunanidhi, solely based on its business proposition,” says Baskaran. While producers sought to make a profit out of a set of popular ideas, the movement’s leaders leveraged the mass appeal of films.

Movie stars started appearing in ‘Dravidian’ films and this further boosted the movement. But the crossover ended early. Baskaran points out that Sivaji Ganesan, who was as big a star as MGR, failed in politics. “His fan following, though huge, was heterogeneous politically unlike that of MGR,” he says.