Sivasankar’s book back in focus after Vetrimaaran’s film ‘Viduthalai’

CHENNAI: National award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran’s latest outing Viduthalai credits writer Jayamohan’s short story as the base from which the film was made. But the core incident from which the movie takes off and the characters have more similarities to Tamil Nadu Transport Minister, SS Sivasankar’s book, ‘Thozhar Sozhan’, published in 2019 as an e-book.

Vetrimaaran’s movie which starts with a caveat that ‘Viduthalai’ is a work of fiction can be termed a compilation of state-sponsored violence against the underprivileged over the years. SS Sivasankar had taken a similar route too and called his book a work of fiction.

‘Viduthalai’ is set in 1987 and the opening sequence of the movie shows rescue teams securing dead persons from a train, which was said to be blasted by a radicalized group called the “Makkal Padai”.

The search for the leader of ‘Makkal Padai’ forms the rest of the movie, which ends with the leader-Perumal Vaathiyar being caught. A teaser for ‘Viduthalai’ Part Two shows Perumal Vaathiyar telling his version of the events leading to the train blast.

‘Viduthalai’ film’s protagonist is an innocent police recruit through whose eyes, the story of the police operation to catch Perumal Vaathiyar is told.

Minister Sivasankar too had used a similar trope in his book, in which, a college student whose singing prowess makes him rub shoulders with the members of the ‘Tamil Nadu Viduthalai Padai’ — a separatist group which was active in the 1980’s.

In Sivasankar’s book, Tamil Nadu Viduthalai Padai is said to be founded by Pulavar Kaliyaperumal and mentions another leader Tamizharasan. In Vetrimaaran’s ‘Viduthalai’, the leader of the armed struggle essayed by Vijay Sethupathi goes by the character name of Perumal Vaathiyar, and his associate is called ‘TA.’

‘Thozhar Sozhan’ is a fictionalised account of the 1987 Ariyalur train accident and the Viduthalai Padai’s robbery at a State Bank of India (SBI) branch at Ponparappi in Ariyalur district after which five persons including a leader of Viduthalai Padai, Tamizharasan was killed, allegedly by public who stoned them to death.

In the DMK Minister’s fictionalised take on the Ponparappi bank robbery, the police had knowledge of the group’s plan through a mole and the ‘public’ who stoned them to death are in actuality police personnel, who had filled the streets and carried out their plan to dent the image of ‘Viduthalai Padai’.

In his author’s note, Minister Sivasankar had written, “During my college days and later, when I mentioned, I am from Andimadam region, it would attract glares and I was the recipient of comments such as ‘Naxal region’. The public opinion about the incidents in the region and mine as a person who grew up there is vastly different and I started to write a fictional take on the incidents I witnessed growing up among people who were called as Naxals, terrorists, and by many names.”

When DT Next contacted Minister Sivasankar he said that he was notified about the similarities.

“Since the Assembly is in session, I am yet to watch the movie. When I wrote ‘Thozhar Sozhan’, the aim was to record about my region. Since the research is not complete yet, I am yet to bring a print version of the book.”

Minister Sivasankar said that several had praised about the racy narration of the book when it was released digitally. “Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who has much experience in the film world too had praised when the book released. In fact, several of my friends had told me that if there is a filmmaker who can do justice as a movie to the theme handled in the book, it is Vetrimaaran.”