Komban row: Seeman attacks Krishnaswamy; raises six solid questions

Seeman has attacked Puthiya Thamizhagam leader K Krishnaswamy in the recent controversy surrounding the release of Komban. Krishnaswamy has filed a petition in the court to immediately halt the release of Komban alleging that the film promotes caste enmity between scheduled communities and the thevar community in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. The Madurai bench of Madras HC has appointed a ten-member expert committee to watch the movie today and and file their report to ensure that the film is devoid of any obvious caste references. Meanwhile, Seeman has raised few pertinent questions to Krishnaswamy.

1. It’s become a long-time habit for Krishnaswamy to target films instead of his political career. Isn’t it mediocre for a respectable leader of his stature to soft target films every time to gain political mileage?
2. Krishnaswamy says Komban will promote enmity between two castes in the southern districts. Can he show a single example of caste war that happened because of a film’s release in the past? If you stop the release of Komban, wouldn’t there be any caste wars in future in those southern districts? Can he assure us?
3. Only those who don’t know the Tamil language properly can link caste angle to the title Komban, which means a mightily strong man, one who is the tallest. There’s no conspicuous caste reference to the word. In the film Kumki, there is an elephant named Komban. Does it mean the elephant belongs to the thevar community?
4. And, the title Komban was announced long back. Why was Krishnaswamy silent all these days? Why has he suddenly taken up this issue now, when the film is due for release on April 2nd? Was he out of the country all these days? Or is it because Nanbenda is releasing on the same day?
5. Krishnaswamy raised issues a decade back when Kamal Haasan’s Sandiyar was released. Due to the respect Kamal has for Krishnaswamy, he changed the titled to Virumaandi. Now, few months back, another film with the title Sandiyar got released. Where was Krishnaswamy then? If Komban also stars newcomers instead of a popular production house and actor, will Krishnaswamy raise this issue?
6. I’m ready to watch Komban along with Krishnaswamy. If I find any caste reference that promotes enmity, I’m ready to go on streets with Krishnaswamy to stop the film’s release. Is he ready to do that?

Gnanavelraja of Studio Green has promised that Komban is a beautiful story that captures the lovely relationship between a father-in-law and a son-in-law. “I feel depressed by few people who raise needless controversies when the film is due for release on April 2nd. A lot of stake is involved in the film with crores of money invested including the hard work of all the technicians. I assure you that our film has no caste references whatsoever,” he said.