MURALI: OWNED BY TWO NATIONS
When India wanted t o make a movie about Sri Lanka’s cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan the islanders were upbeat for many reasons. And chief among these reasons was India giving value to one of Sri Lanka’s sporting products.
It’s not that India is short of cricket personalities and anyone of these big names can serve in the task penning the script for the protagonist. If India asks the question ‘Why Murali’? Sri Lanka has just one response and that’s ‘Why not?’
If people back at home remember right Murali was one of the most popular players wearing the white flannels for Sri Lanka at Test cricket and the blue t-shirt in ODIS. The majority Sri Lankans loved him so much because he represented the minority Tamils and also because he blended beautifully with the rest of the players who were mostly Sinhalese. Even during the war every wicket that he took produced loud cheers from boisterous spectators who were quite vocal with their chanting in Sinhalese.
The filmmaker of the biopic titled ‘800’ perhaps knew all this and had high hopes that South Indian superstar Vijay Sethupathi would do justice in the role he was selected to play as ‘Murali’.
But all hope of producing an epic of a film is under the cloud of gloom because of criticism coming the way of the main actor. The criticism is coming from Indian Tamil nationalists, South Indian film personalities and Tamil politicians. The anti-biopic wave had an earthshattering effect on the making of the movie with Sethupaththi pulling out.
A nationalist’s mentality could be quite harming at this juncture. This is a time when brotherhood must be promoted. This is a time when one must reflect on the ‘healing effects’ of sport. Cricket can form bridges between communities and the sport played with bat and ball did this very well. As much as cricket is very much looked forward to in the southern and western provinces of the country the war-torn north of Sri Lanka too has a big following for the game with at least one school cricket big match played in Jaffna spanning a history of over 100 years. And Muralitharan was one cricketer who had a hand in opening the doors for cricketers from the north to play and get recognised by performing in the Murali Harmony Cup. This was a 20-team reconciliation schools cricket tournament and helped promote community-building and friendship in post-war Sri Lanka.
Murali knows what it is to be nurtured and guarded when overwhelming forces are out there gunning for you. And this helping hand was extended to him in cricket by none other than former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga who hails from a family which promotes Sinhalese nationalistic views. And now Murali naturally has thought of shielding actor Sethupathi from harm because he (Sethupathi ) has earned the wrath of Southern India for saying ‘yes’ to playing the role of Muralitharan in the film.
It’s good if the making of the film can get off the ground because it means so much for Sri Lanka and Muralitharan. The Director of the film M.S Shripathy has been quoted as saying that the film neither portrays in any way the Sri Lankan civil war nor Tamil separatism. He also vouches that the film would not harm the minds of the Indian Tamil community.
During a tricky time like this why not give cricket a chance to heal? Cricket has the power to heal and gel nations. At a time when relationships between India and Sri Lanka are not running smooth due to the Chinese presence in the island the biopic on Murali would be just what the doctor prescribed. Just on a concluding note we must recall the 1996 Cricket World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka at Eden Garden in Kolkata where the later was declared the winner because Indian spectators rioted. Anger in the Sri Lanka camp melted the moment they saw a banner in the stands sporting the message ‘We’re sorry. Congratulations Sri Lanka’.
Bring on the film because cricket speaks a language that both Sri Lanka and India understand!