CHENNAI: As the political temperature heats up ahead of the Assembly polls, an ‘ideology war’ is brewing at the box office, with the political stakeholders playing a role in the clash of the movies as well.
During the mid-January Pongal harvest festival, “Jana Nayagan” and “Parasakthi” are seen as speaking their respective ideologies, and are all set to assume centre stage.
Actor Vijay’s 69th film, Jana Nayagan, is slated to be his last before he makes the full-fledged entry into politics through his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party. It is set for a January 9 release. Clashing with him is ‘Parasakthi,’ the namesake of the 1952 blockbuster penned by DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, starring Thespian Sivaji Ganesan in his maiden role. It apparently speaks of an issue close to the ruling DMK’s heart: the language struggle.
On the political front, TVK and DMK are going all guns against each other, with the state elections only a few months away. Incidentally, Sivaji-starrer “Parasakthi” also catapulted the late DMK president M Karunanidhi to great heights for his fiery dialogues questioning the then societal norms and social evils.
The Sivakarthikeyan-starrer Parasakthi’s release this year has been advanced by four days from its original date of January 14. The film is distributed by Red Giant Movies, owned by Udhayanidhi
Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister and son of Chief Minister MK Stalin.
On the political turf, the race for power in the 2026 Assembly election is between the ruling DMK dispensation and the AIADMK combine, though the TVK is actively present, making it a triangular contest.
Sivakarthikeyan, who plays the lead role in Parasakthi, has been spotted on the DMK stages on many occasions.
The film’s producer Aakash Baskaran told reporters here recently that Parasakthi has been moved to January 10 due to “some personal suggestions from theatre owners and distributors,” speaking off speculations that it was a “Vijay vs DMK” face-off.
The film is reportedly based on a real-life character named Chezhiyan, who turns a hero for fighting against the imposition of Hindi, a subject close to DMK’s heart, but the director Sudha Kongara has clarified that the movie is not a biopic.
“No one has addressed this post-Independence movement before. We are presenting it for the first time,” producer Baskaran said.
Though the filmmakers are attempting to depict Parasakthi as a non-political movie based on the very political movement, people think otherwise.