Call to ban Yugapurushan

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Aikyavedi office bearers demanded that the screening of director R. Sukumaran's period film Yugapurushan (the celluloid story of social reformer Sree Narayana Guru) be cancelled as, according to the organisation, the film portrays the life of social reformer Ayyankali (1863–1941) in a bad light. At a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, Aikyavedi office bearers demanded that the screening of the film be stopped immediately and that the producers apologise for the allegedly demeaning Ayyankali, a leader of the Indian lower caste Dalits known as "Untouchables". The Aikyavedi said there were several scenes in the film in which Sree Narayana Guru had been eulogised for bringing about many social reforms, many of which were actually brought about by Ayyankali. It claimed that while both Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali were friends and contemporaries, the Guru had been portrayed as the teacher of Ayyankali. They said they had no dispute about the greatness of Sree Narayana Guru, but their objection was in portraying Ayyankali as a follower of the Guru. The film did not give due credit to Ayyankali as a great social reformer while extolling the Guru as a ‘Yugapurushan’, which was humiliating Ayyankali, they claimed vpost : 02