BJP minority wing opposes Simbu-starrer Maanaadu

It seeks the intervention of Chief Minister

The recently released Tamil movie

Maanaadu, starring Simbu showed the Muslim community in bad light as if its members were law violators and indulged in illegal activities, said M. Syed Ibrahim, national secretary of BJP’s Minority Morcha, here on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters, he said cinema, which was considered as a powerful medium, should disseminate good and positive messages to society. By portraying a minority community members as fundamentalists, this kind of movies only made Muslims live in an insecure environment.

The movie also described the 1998 serial blasts in Coimbatore, wherein a few scenes created a rift between Hindus and Muslims. The characters wearing caps and interacting with persons clad in saffron dhotis were bound to create differences, Mr. Ibrahim claimed and wanted Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to immediately intervene in the issue.

The message threatened the secular fabric of society. “In 1998, the DMK was in power, and portraying the Coimbatore serial blasts now in a movie required to be censured properly,” he said.

Mr. Ibrahim also came down heavily on Surya’s movie Jai Bhim, which had “pained a downtrodden segment in society”.

Appealing to the Tamil film industry to use the medium for conveying good messages that would take the State to a better position in development, he said there were many success stories in many spheres, which could be brought out by films rather than criticising the minority communities, which only caused pain and mental agony to them.

The Chief Minister should either direct the authorities to censor the film properly or ban it in Tamil Nadu in larger public interest, Mr. Ibrahim stressed.