Tamil star Vijay’s new flick, Mersal , while courting controversies on its run to success, has earned the ire of medical professionals too.
The Tamil Nadu State unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is running a social media campaign asking the community to desist from seeing the film. Going to court will only attract more publicity to the film, says an appeal from the Tamil Nadu IMA being forwarded to various groups of doctors in Kerala.
Reacting to the issue, IMA Kerala unit president V.G. Pradeep Kumar said the film is targeting a particular profession in the name of freedom of expression.
The Singapore angle
There are factual errors in the film. A dialogue in the film mentions free health-care services in Singapore, while it is a known fact that the living expenses in that city are rather high, Dr. Pradeep Kumar said.
“I personally know quite a few who had preferred to take treatment here rather than in Singapore,” he added. He mentioned the challenge thrown by a section of lawyers from Coimbatore against the director, actors Vijay and Vadivelu and producers that says the group is ready to pay ₹1 crore if such statement regarding Singapore is found to be true. If not, the group should be given that amount.
Powerful medium
Film is a powerful medium to communicate to the masses, hence this art should not be presented with factual errors, Dr. Pradeep Kumar said.
“There are black sheep in every profession, but it does not mean that filmmakers portray the entire professionals in modern medicine as looters. There should be a balanced view,” he said. Even the makers of the film would be depending on modern medicine for treatment, he said.
“People are quick to take to negative thoughts. And many such negative things against modern medicine are floating in the social media. The example in front of us is the campaign against the MR (measles-rubella) vaccine that has hurt the drive in the State which had prided over good immunisation coverage of communicable diseases so far,” he said.
