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Jallikattu protests: What is the uproar in Tamil Nadu all about?
Sunday story: Locked Horns
Director MS Raj.In January 2017, following the arrest of over 200 protestors revolting against the Supreme Courts ban on Jallikattu in the village of Alanganallur, renowned for the bull taming sport, Chennai-based director MS Raj was intrigued by how it served as fuel for a leaderless protest. For the first time since 1965, when there was a huge uprising against the imposition of Hindi as a national language that was backed by political parties, these protests — without any backing of a leader, political party or actors support — lasted over eight days and brought together over four lakh people across numerous locations in Tamil Nadu. In Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy, people were asking for the removal of the ban.
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“A lot of women were part of the protests, along with young girls and children, who would sleep on the beach. Not a single eve-teasing complaint was launched,” says Raj, ahead of the release of his Tamil fiction documentary Marina Puratchi, which literally translates to Marina Revolution (the protests happened at Chennais Marina beach).
A still from his film Marina PuratchiAfter the film was rejected by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) twice, Raj was granted permission to screen his 82-minute film last month, after he took up the case in the Madras High Court.
Featuring Naveen Kumar and Shruthi Reddy, who were participants in the Jallikattu protests, the 43-year-old director investigates the events leading to the protests, by bringing in fictional characters — two communication students chronicling the musings of the protest. “One may hear of the Occupy Wall Street protest and the Mexican protests but this protest was very unique. It was winter time and it would often rain, but nobody dispersed or left the area. They were there for more than 192 hours. They sat at their site of protest,” says Raj.
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The film, dealing with the protests that forced the Tamil Nadu assembly to modify the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to allow the continuation of the sport, has been screened in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, so far.
Raj highlights American documentary filmmaker Michael Moores political investigative film Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), which looked at the events that led to the Twin Tower blasts in the US and revealed many hidden secrets. “Everybody thinks that Osama Bin Laden was the reason for the blasts but Moore revealRead More – Source
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The Indian Express
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