Reel Buzz: Muslims angry over Sivaji

Chennai: Muslims in Tamil Nadu have threatened of agitations against superstar Rajnikanth’s latest blockbuster Sivaji, the Boss as it “insulted the community as one of hawala traders”. Upset that the movie shows the hero converting a huge amount of black money into legal tender by routing it through hawala channels of Muslim underground agents, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam has threatened it would hold demonstrations at the theatres showing the movie in Tamil Nadu unless the offending scenes were withdrawn.

“The scene showing the hero in an underground den full of Muslims dealing with hawala transactions is highly objectionable. It makes it seem that our community is involved in such illegal acts against the state and the people. We cannot accept this,” said the TMMK general secretary S. Hyder Ali. “We will also appeal to the chief minister to intervene since we know he is sensitive to the feelings of the minorities. We will launch protests throughout the state and may even move the court to seek justice for the Muslims. We are law abiding people but this film shows us as criminals operating hawala,” said Mr Ali, who is also the chairman of the state wakf board. The TMMK claims a membership of over seven lakhs across Tamil Nadu.

Mr Ali also accused Sivaji’s director Shankar of being “consistent in his insensitivity towards the minorities and the oppressed classes through several of his films starting with Gentleman” (1993) and swore to make him realise “at least now about his social responsibilities.” While Shankar himself could not be reached since he is away in Canada, sources in his unit claimed that the film only showed the Muslims as helping the hero in his efforts to launch educational institutions using black money extracted from the villains. Film was a medium to convey a good message in an entertaining manner and it would be futile to launch any serious moralistic debate on its contents, argued a Shankar aide.