Indians – Veerapandiakattabomman (#atozchallenge 2013)

Tossing it Out    has used  Indians to refer to the micro genre of cowboys and Indian, and I am using it to highlight the freedom struggle India went through with the British monopoly for years together  –  this is letter “I” for the A to Z April Challenge.

Anyone tracing Indian freedom struggle will also be equally surprised on the number of Indian kings and queens who joined the struggle  –  as kids, while we learnt more about what our country went through in the past, there are few leaders who stand out  –  While M.K.Gandhi led the freedom struggle, I am sure at each regional levels there were those unsung heroes across Indian states who played a major role in influencing the people of that area.

Veerapandia Katta Bomman is one such hero from the southern region of Tamilnadu who lived in 18th century  –   every kid who grew up in the Tamil nadu was influenced by these inspiring stories of him.   While the Government of India recognized him (there was even a postal stamp released by them), I felt the regional movie by his name really brought in the impact on many  –  I still remember the dialogues of this movie Veerapandiya Kattabomman, a movie from 1959 –  this movie had Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan playing the lead role.  Sivaji did such a great job on this that for me, it is still his face which comes across when I think of Kattabomman. This movie was also notable for being the second Tamil film to be shot in Technicolor and which was printed in London. This movie ran 100 days in 28 theatres in those days, which is a record breaker.

ps-I never knew it was a 1959 movie, this essentially means i have watched this movie almost 20+ years after its release ; and I still continue to think this is one movie which brought in more patriotic feeling into me than the stories of many  leaders who worked for Indian freedom struggle!  wow!!