Filmmaker Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar: The Revenge has been running to packed houses in theatres and breaking records, one after another. Meanwhile, the film's critics continue to call it out for its alleged propaganda and pandering to the right wing. The detractors have been saying that the film whitewashes the BJP government's demonetisation policy, portraying it as a masterful move that curbed terrorism.
When the discussion around the presence of propaganda in the Dhurandhar sequel is at its most intense stage, director Vetri Maaran indirectly alluded to it at a recent event. "Nowadays, everything is turning into propaganda. And propaganda has the power to influence memory. Memory is so fickle," the filmmaker said.
While Vetri Maaran did not mention Dhurandhar in the clip, which has surfaced on social media, he talked about demonetisation in the context of propaganda in films.
"We all know who was impacted by demonetisation the most and how many people died because of its repercussions. However, it is easy to change the impact of demonetisation," the filmmaker said. He then suggested that it is important for filmmakers to make movies with narratives that counter the propaganda in films.
Vetri Maaran has become one of the few film personalities to openly speak about propaganda in films, such as the Dhurandhar sequel. Recently, the Mammootty starrer Bheeshma Parvam's writer Devadath Shaji also alluded to the validation of problematic notions masked by technical superiority in Dhurandhar: The Revenge. "If a movie uses high quality making to validate the wrong idea, the technical skill becomes a took for manipulation," Devadath Shaji opined on Instagram without mentioning the film's name.
On the work front, the filmmaker's upcoming projects include Arasan, starring Silambarasan TR in the lead role.
