Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Pic shared below in the tweet is an edit of a still from a 1954 movie - Andha Naal

A songless film directed by the great Veena player S Balachander.

Sivaji Ganesan plays the villain who collaborates with Japanese during WW2 (which is regarded as traitorous)

https://twitter.com/Muralik79739498/status/1248291658380136450

This is the original still

I found the film interesting

As it regards someone who collaborates with the Japs as the "bad guy"

A more innocent age, when most educated Indians sincerely felt strongly the patriotic thing is to side with the British in WW2

(even though they also sought "freedom")

Today, with all the revisionism (exacerbated by social media in the past 10 yrs) - it is fashionable to regard collaboration with Japs or Germans as something "cool"

Subhas Bose is of course a hero.

Contrary to the "mainstream" opinion in educated circles in India back in 1940s

The film was shot back in 1954. In the city of Madras

A somewhat Anglophile, and "brahminical" city back in the day

I wouldn't be surprised if PG Wodehouse was the most popular English author in Madras back then

The movie itself was directed by a man who belonged to the social elite of TN - a Veena player who dabbled in cinema in the 50s

Now could the film have been made in Bombay - a less Anglophile industry?

Or for that matter in post-Dravidian movement TN (say after 1960)? No