T"he story of the movie kaala is indeed a story of thiraviam nadar" is the main claim of the real kaala's daughter. Thiraviam Nadar was the don of the dharavi during the period of 1960- 80.
The Daughter of Thiraviam Nadar claims that, "A year of stressful waiting to see if Rajnikant starrer Kaala is indeed based on my father S. Thiraviam Nadar’s life and after catching a special screening of the movie, with just six others in the theatre, I can safely say that the movie is definitely based on my father’s life. Of course, a lot more details has been added to the film to juxtapose the past and present day Dharavi, which I feel only weighs down the film, adding no value to it whatsoever.
I personally feel that if the director PA Ranjith had stuck to the don angle, and set his film in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, he would have had a more powerful film on hand, with enough grit, struggle, pain, and yet a lot of joy as well, to hold the movie on its own. There are not enough underworld stories, with a heavy dose of compassion, and each time they are told, they are run away hits. This movie was supposed to be Rajnikant’s answer to Kamal Hassan’s Nayakan, but it fails to invoke the same sentiments.
In his attempt to give a present day overtone to the movie, Ranjith, shows fleeting images of Dharavi of the 50’s, 60’s and the 70’s when Dharavi transformed from a mosquito infested swamp, to the movie in the present where Dharavi has now become a Rs 400 billion worth of prime land.
Ranjith has got so carried away by the Dharavi of today, that he has preferred his central character Rajnikant here, rather than fifty plus years before. Those earlier years have been dismissively told in a series of childish sketches, depicting exactly my version of my dad’s story, attributed to Rajnikant’s ‘dad’ in the movie, Vengaiyan ! The joke here is that Nana Patekar who definitely looks younger than Rajnikant in the film, bumped off Rajnikant’s father in the film and is also shown as Rajnikant’s adversary in the present too! This is where the plot loses itself. Ranjith’s fascination for Rajnikant, to show him in the past and present is where he loses his grip over the film completely.
The defamation notice filed by my brother Jawahar Nadar, had focused on the fact that my father may be portrayed in poor light. Our fear centered around the fact that since Ranjith being a dalit himself is always under pressure by his fans to keep the focus on the dalit community. And true to expectation, Ranjith has literally strewn dalit symbolisms everywhere. There are Ambedkar statues, Buddha statues, a buddhist temple, they reside in Bheemwada, one of the important characters is called Bheem, while Rajnikant’s status is left to interpretation. The Nadar community, a prominent business community, was included in the category of the Backward Class by Kamaraj Nadar, in the 70’s, which most from the community do not acknowledge or agree with. A high court petition filed in the Chennai High Court focused on the fact that either my father should be shown as a Nadar or as a secular Tamilian, the way my father actually was and not as a dalit. Ranjith has very smartly played with this aspect of the film.
Coming to the present, Rajnikant is shown as protecting Dharavi from being converted into a ‘vertical’ slum instead of a ‘horizontal’ one at the moment.
Though the two major parties Congress with the help of Shiv Sena tried to usurp the sprawling Dharavi, centrally located and tried to move the slum dwellers to far away areas, in an effort to “clean” up the area, and then relented and put them in buildings in the area itself, which is nothing but vertical slums, with a 250-300 sq feet apartments, in exchange for their duplex slums!
Though Rajnikant has been shown in present day Dharavi, the character borrows heavily from the past, and most definitely from my father’s life who too fought on several occasions to ensure that Dharavi is not “cleaned” up for vested interests. He wanted the poor to be treated with dignity and given better accommodations than they had at the moment, otherwise they were quite happy where they were.
Rajnikant wears a safari suit to meet Huma Qureshi, his previous love, something which my dad wore if he felt a need to ever dress up. Who wears one in today’s day and time ?
My father always cut a formidable figure in his white kurta and white dhoti, with a black umbrella always, through the year. Not only did the umbrella help him in his increasing age, he never hesitated to use it as a weapon, something which Rajnikant does too !
My father insisted on education being the only way out of poverty, refusing to take the MP/MLA seat offered to him, because he felt only the educated should enter politics. Similar scene in the movie as well, with Rajnikant insisting on education on multiple occasion.
So many scenes where the police could not get to Rajnikant. Again, that is very close home.
Swords have been shown to be liberally used in present day Dharavi, which is again is so 70’s and the 80’s. My father has taken sword attacks on his arms. But can you imagine a scenario like this today? I do not think so at all. Even the BJP/RSS goons today can only flash only rusty swords!
Trying to show the present communal incidences to the film, complete with haram meat thrown amidst praying Muslims, to trigger riots all weigh down the film and is a poor attempt to hide the fact the movie is indeed a big slice of my father’s life".
