‘Jana Nayagan’ shows how politics impact cinema

As the opening weekend came to a close, the 69th and final film – Jana Nayagan - of A-lister hero Vijay aka C Joseph Vijay, has been certified to be a success with the box office collections expected to touch Rs 150 crore. Given the peak expectations the film had raised prior to its originally scheduled release in October last (later shifted to January 9) it was not entirely eyebrow raising news to mull about. Social media, the solid base of the modern celebrities in the country, has already gone to town listing the Telugu remake at number four among the top ten all-time hits of the matinee idol. It may well inch up by a position or two given that the film has received a multilingual release, including Hindi. Facing constant blockades from known and unknown ‘powerful’ sources in Delhi despite the local film fraternity and the Dravidian party politicians fully backing him, Vijay’s film initially faced an allegedly whimsical delay in receiving the censor certificate, which moved back and forth from the censor authorities and the review committee. This was because it was made known that it ‘offended’ religious sentiments and portrayed the armed forces in an unflattering manner.

Expectedly, as allegations and counter allegations were made about the film’s status, it suffered a real jolt when its ‘pirated’ edition was released online. This pushed the film rapidly into the trending news circuit, which kept the updates coming, (including an estimated loss of Rs 120 crore to the producer). This, when a few months later, the hero morphed from a senior film star to a newbie chief minister, who dethroned and demolished the duopoly of DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Released without too much ado on July 23, even as fans were expecting it to hit the silver screens a month ago to coincide with the star’s 52nd birthday, ‘Jananayagan’ was received enthusiastically in his home state and elsewhere. Critics have panned the film for its weak storyline and also why the last hurrah of the immensely popular hero should have been a remake instead of an original hard-hitting political thriller. Tamil Nadu has seen how top heroes have faced political pressures and invisible moves to stymie their film releases, which coincided with the level of proximity they enjoyed with the government in power.

The all-powerful MGR had got into a gridlock with the then friend-turned-foe M Karunanidhi in the 1970s, which affected promotion and publicity of his ambitiously produced big budget film ‘Ulagam Sutrum Valiban’. The fate of the film was almost pushed into a helpless situation, as Karunanidhi’s government applied pressure on exhibitors and distributors to stay away from releasing the film. That it got to see the light of the day, emerging as an all-time blockbuster is a classic case study in Tamil cinema. Of course, by then MGR had broken away from DMK and had floated a splinter outfit, ADMK, making the issue a case of political warfare. Vijay too had his rub-ins with the Dravidian governments with two of his films in the last decade or so. His producers, however acquiesced, and made the necessary modifications to keep the local power lobbies happy even till a few years ago. After all, his political journey was not too sudden as he too was making the right noises to enter the political arena to ‘cleanse’ the state and defeat the evil forces besieging it, nearly for a decade. Now that he is in power, he must be aware how things can change when everything turns in his favour.