By Our Correspondent
The CPM is caught in a bind over its inability to intervene in a “labour dispute’’ in the Malayalam film industry involving a veteran actor with Communist legacy on one side and superstars on the other side. National and state award winning actor Thilakan has indirectly accused superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal as well as several prominent filmmakers of trying to deny him employment. Their grudge, he says, was for acting in a film directed by leader of the rebel trade union MACTA and that they had imposed an unwritten ban on all actors cooperating with its members. “I wonder where else you will see such an illegal boycott. I have been denied my livelihood and the government or the CPM cannot remain mute spectators to this highhandedness,’’ he thundered at various public functions. Politics had stepped into Mollywood two years ago with the directors’ outfit MACTA getting mired in controversies before getting split and a major chunk of directors leaving it to form FEFKA.
Since the MACTA is affiliated to the CPI, the party has come all out in support of Thilakan and carried out protest demonstrations against the “denial of employment.’. The CPM’s silence on the issue has been deafening and apparently influenced by the fact that Mammootty is chairman of the party-run Kairali
TV. However, the party has also been losing face thanks to Thilakan’s public outcry for “abandoning an actor who played a key role in the Communist movement through plays like Ningalenne Communist Aakki (You made me a Communist).’’