Rudra Thandavam – A Tamil movie that exposes Christian conversion mafias has lit up the posterior of leftists

Rudra Thandavam, a Tamil movie exposing the Christian conversion mafias of the state, directed by Mohan G Kshatriyan has opened up to packed cinema halls, raucous crowds, and rave reviews. However, the left-liberals and the custodians of the conversion mafias have come out with seething red faces and started protesting against the movie.

A complaint petition to ban the movie has been filed by the Ministry of Minority Welfare at the office of DGP, for misrepresenting a particular religion (Read: Christianity). Although the southern movies tend to give a positive light to Hinduism on the 70 mm screen, none of them try to question the menace of conversion.

Left-liberal portal, ‘The News Minute’ called out director Mohan G by stating “another film that spouts his violent, casteist propaganda, creating false narratives about romance, masculinity, social justice, and anti-caste ideology.”

The same publication had called Mohan’s previous outing Draupathi released in 2020 as casteist, violent and a propaganda film.

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The overwhelming popularity despite having a modest cast and crew

Starring actor Richard Rishi as the protagonist and acclaimed director Gautham Vasudev Menon as the antagonist, Rudra Thandavam, despite not having big names, has attempted to take on the burning issue head-on. And going by the response of the audience, it appears that the makers have hit the nail on the head.

Capturing the popularity of the movie, the new Indian Express in its review remarked, “The crowd celebrating the film’s release through music and dance on the roads and Housefull shows in Tiruchy, Ariyalur and neighboring districts was new to Tamil cinema.”

The movie actually sheds more light on the misuse of the Protection of Civil Rights Act (PCR Act) against the Tamil Hindus, especially the Brahmins, which is why the film has garnered negative spotlight from certain section of the media. However, the tsunami in Tamil film industry is far too large to ignore for now.

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Tamil movies breaking the glass ceiling

There are umpteen examples to prove that the south movies are breaking the traditional mould of only showing Hindus in bad light.  For instance, in the movie Ratsasan – a Hindu sub inspector, who wants to be a screenwriter, sets out to investigate a series of kidnappings and gruesome murders of schoolgirls. In the end, the villain turns out to be a devout Christian mother, whose son suffers from premature ageing problem.

Then there is Kaithi – an ex convict, named Dilli, is a devout Shiva Bhakt, who won’t let anything happen to the task in hand, and has utmost faith in Bhagwan Shiva. The main antagonist is the Narcotics Bureau Chief, who is a Christian, Stephen Raj, who supplies information about the protagonists to the drug lords, Adaikalam and Anbudoss.

Even in a recently released OTT movie ‘Netrikann’, call it a coincidence or a deliberate plot device, the villain is a Christian doctor, James Dinah, while the protagonist is a police cadet, Durga, who was blinded by an accident.

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BJP full steam behind the release of the movie

The overwhelming popularity of the movie also shows that Hindus of the state are waking up to the existential threat of conversion. The political leaders that used to remain stoic and indifferent when it came to discussing the issue have started openly talking about it as well.

BJP State President, Tamil Nadu, K Annamalai took to Twitter and wished his best to the movie, “Wishing the movie ‘Rudra Thandavam’ all success. It’s an important movie for our times! They have crossed many obstacles to reach here. I’m sure our audience would support original content like this! @mohandreamer @JSKGopi”

Moreover, on Monday, BJP leader H Raja at a press meet in Chennai called out the media personnels for trying to differentiate between Tamil and Hindus. Giving the journalists an earful, Raja said, “Who told you that Hindu is different and Tamil is different? What are you guys talking about? All you media people? Presstitutes. Don’t go to the point of encouraging conversion because you think Tamil is not the same as Hindu. Don’t become addicted to conversion,”

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Raja along with K Krishnasamy, the leader of Puthiya Tamizhagam, Arjun Sampath, the founder of Hindu Makkal Katchi, BJP functionary Radha Ravi and a couple of other Hindu leaders had conducted the press meet after watching the movie.

Terming the movie “very good and educational”, Raja lectured about how the movie has sent a strong message against religious conversion, how youngsters are addicted to drugs, and how girls are mistaking infatuation for love.

The menace of conversion in Tamil Nadu

Reported extensively by TFI, a study released by the Centre for Policy Studies, a Chennai think-tank in 2016 revealed that Tamil Nadu was the most favorable state in India for the growth of Christianity. Kanyakumari district has seen a rapid increase in the number of Christians, where the share of Christians in the population rose from 30.7 percent in 1921 to 34.7 percent in 1951 and has risen to 46.8 percent since then.

Apart from Kanyakumari, Christians in Tamil Nadu are concentrated in several pockets spread across the state. These include a pocket around Chennai city in the north, other comprising parts of Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli, and Dindigul in the middle.

Charting towards the West, parts of Coimbatore and Nilgiris have a sizeable Christian populace while in the southeast Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli and Thoothukkudi have distinct Christian dominated areas, according to the CPS report.

Read More: It’s not just Kanyakumari, but many parts of Tamil Nadu have undergone a massive demographic change

The population of Hindus which constituted 90.47 percent of the State’s population in 1951 has come down to 87.58 percent by 2011. And these figures are from almost from a decade-old census. With the rampant polarization, the dissemination of lethal Dravidian ideology, and the unholy nexus of Dravidian parties and Evangelical societies, it wouldn’t be a surprise that the numbers might have swelled up by ungodly numbers up until now.

The evangelist mafia in Tamil Nadu are hell bent on banning the movie but with increased awareness, and audience’s piqued interest in the subject, even the lobby has failed to get its way this time. The union government had recently made it very clear that Dalit people who convert to Islam and Christianity cannot enjoy the benefits of reservation. The movie is expected to further expose the syndicate and bring the reality in front of the audience.

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