Sarkar: Naming a Protagonist

Rajakumar D

“How many of you know Sundar(a) Ramasamy?”

This was the first dialog in the movie Sarkar acted by Vijay, directed by A. R. Murugadas and scripted by Jeyamohan. Recently, I haven’t been watching movie in theater, or if I went, I haven’t been watching the movie from the beginning; happened to see this movie on compulsion of a niece and watched from it the beginning.

When I went to this movie, I didn’t have a faintest idea on the plot or theme of the movie, though the teasers on the TV failed to leave any distinctive impact on me, as actor Vijay was on my blind spot. When my daughter narrates a movie story portrayed by Vijay to me, she used to interweave scenes from many of his recent movie, and she used to tell that all the scenes fit into any of his movie.

When I went to this movie, I was aware that it is scripted by Writer Jeyamohan. (I loved some of his creations like Rubber, Pinthodarum Nizhalin Kural, Kanyakumari, and Kadu, but Jeyamohan used to claim that Vishnupuram and Venmurusu series are his best creations.) So I was surprised and impressed about the first dialog that mentioned Sundara Ramasamy’s name, because Sundara Ramasamy happened to be the mentor of Jeyamohan (though he had carried hostility and controversy over the mentor while Jeyamohan rose into popularity). Sundara Ramasamy was acclaimed for his novels, J J: Sila Kurippukal, Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai, Kulanthaigal Pengal Aangal, many short stories and verses under the pseudo name Pasuvaiyah. He published Kalachuvadu, a monthly literary magazine which is, even today, a platform for many modern writers. He is a cult figure in Tamil Literature and a leftist, I wondered if he turned into a conservative orthodox after living in USA for some time towards the last phase of his life.

Within the first three minutes, I realized that Sundar Ramasamy was not the mentor of Jeyamohan, instead he is the brother of Sanjay Ramasamy from the movie Gajini directed by A. R. Murugadas.

Viewers of the movie knows the name is derived from Sundar Pichal, the CEO of Google, probably because of the fake FaceBook and WhatsApp messages which requested honest voting in Indians (or especially Tamilians) by Sundar Pichai. 

I must mention that I had an opportunity to see Mr. RamaniRamachandran, who was Vice President of CI.COM (P) LTD, Chennai, when I worked there between 2000 and 2016, who came as Narayanamoorthy, the CEO who hosted a party on behalf of Indian software companies to Sundar Ramasamy, CEO of GL.

What’s there in a name, Shakespeare said, “A rose in any other name would smell as rose”, and Osho said, “Rose is a rose is a rose”. 

Without any background of the story, Jeyamohan made me to remember Sundara Ramasamy, with the very first dialog of the movie, Sarkar. Thank you, Jeyamohan.