The party on Tuesday released a five-minute video profiling the life and contribution of Anna, with the background score and dialogues sourced from director Vetrimaran’s Vada Chennai. From introducing his alma mater Pachaiyappa’s college as “pullingo fame” to describing his Rajya Sabha entry in 1962 as ‘gethu’ (swagger), DMK spoke of Dravidian history in the language of north Chennai. In fact, producers of the video were content with using the dialogue dhavloondu anchor thaanda avlavu periya kappalaye niruthuthu (only a small anchor holds a huge ship) uttered by Ameer in Vada Chennai to describe the impact Anna’s “Dravidian stock” speech in the Rajya Sabha had on Indian politics then.

Unsurprisingly, the smart thinking of the DMK publicity team did not go unnoticed. Even members of other parties were all praise for the change in the opposition party’s discourse. Congress MP from Sivaganga, Karti P Chidambaram, responded to the video by tweeting, “The @INCIndia and @INCTamilNadu must learn the art of communication from our alliance partners @arivalayam.” He was apparently advising the media managers of the State and national unit of Congress to emulate the DMK.

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